Good Deed: Bayou Rebirth 2010
Our latest community service adventure brought the Mudbug Media team out into the natural habitat of real life mudbugs…and snakes and alligators and mosquitoes.
We teamed up with our friends at Bayou Rebirth to help plant palmetto and cypress trees in the Bonnet Carré Spillway on March 6th in a park that the Wetland Warriors are building to help save the wetlands. 
We took to the latest volunteer activity like a fish to water, or in our case like mudbugs to mud.
Saturday morning’s weather was perfect – bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky. Emily and I piled into my car, and set out on a journey to the spillway, just past the New Orleans airport. After missing a couple of highway exits, asking for directions, and passing a refinery, we turned onto a dirt road that would lead us to the coastline we would be restoring.
I couldn’t help but think while I was guiding my ancient Volvo down what was little more than a footpath that the ride was surprisingly smoother than any drive down St. Charles Avenue. Could filling potholes be our next community service activity please?
Four miles down the road, and 20 minutes later, the road opened up to a magnificent view of Lake Pontchartrain. As one of our volunteers remarked later in the day, “It’s the best view from a port o’ potty I’ve ever seen!” 
The wetland park is sort of the brainchild of Wetland Warrior Milton Cambre, who in the 1950’s had the foresight to begin conservation work on the coastline. Milton explained the merit of preserving the wetlands, not just for aesthetics but because they act as a natural barrier against storms and hurricanes. 
After our orientation, we rolled up our sleeves and put on what I lovingly and incorrectly referred to as “shrimpin boots.” We spent much of the morning and afternoon planting cypress and palmetto trees. Some of us were even lucky enough to be assigned the task of moving mud, which, believe it or not, was awesome! 
Check out some more pictures of Mudbugs hard at work.
A good time was had by all, and when we finally collapsed into the car, sunburned and sore, we felt as if we really did do something to help save the wetlands. Every tree counts, and we must have planted dozens of them.
