For kicks, I used Chat GPT for the first time to ask this question: What are the best practices for restoring coastal prairie along the Gulf Coast? ChatGPT replied: Restoring coastal prairie along the Gulf Coast involves a multi-faceted approach that considers the unique characteristics of the ecosystem and the challenges it faces. Here are…
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The Fauna
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The Flora
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Restoration Stories
No ecosystem can ever be restored to the way it was. That is the widely held opinion of restoration ecologists. Once the fragile relationships between plant and animal species and the soil they live on are severed, it may not be possible to restore and optimize them all in our lifetime. That is because these…
The Ecology of the Prairie
If you drive down a country road in Southwest Louisiana, you might not even notice the prairies all around you. Unless you have studied the plants, animals, water, and soil of prairies, you probably would not think it is that interesting unless a showy wildflower is in bloom or flitting butterflies get your attention. If…
The Restoration Decision
The decision to go in a new direction with this land was not simple. People like me and my siblings who inherit land but never grew up on it are often in a quandary as to what to do with these generous gifts from our parents. What ends up happening with it is often dependent…
The Baudoin Prairie
Before great-grandpa Gerard died in 1935 at the age of 651 , he had already allocated his property to his six children. He must have owned over 600 acres when he died. When I asked how he came to own so much land, a relative said she heard talk that he would lend people money with…
Weifenbach/Burgard 3-acre prairie in St. Landry Parish
Dona Weifenbach and Neil Burgard’s prairie was not the realization of a lifelong dream of creating native habitat. It was a serendipitous outcome born of their desire for a bigger buffer from possible development on adjacent properties. The quiet country life was always appealing to them. Their life together had begun in the early 1980s…
A new prairie in the neighborhood
Imagine driving down a country road in Southwest Louisiana. It’s flat as far as you can see, with occasional brick houses and mobile homes facing the road, and expansive tracts of sugarcane fields, crawfish and rice ponds, or fallow fields making up the rest. There are almost certainly some cattle grazing in pastures along your…
Fall color envy
It’s the last day of 2020, and the leaves have already thinned in most of the tree canopy on our property in Acadiana. In Michigan and Vermont, Mother Nature’s big swaths of color inspired foliage tours, tracking apps, calendars and jigsaw puzzles. But here in Louisiana, this comparatively anemic spurt of red stopped me in…
There is no They. And Context Matters.
Biologists, of all people, should understand variation in populations. We know, when we look up close, that not all the anoles or irises or E. coli in a habitat are identical, genetically or otherwise. Even if they were, they are probably not at the same stage of development, or have not experienced the exact same “nurture” with respect to…
Bonjour et bienvenue!
I’m Dr. Phyllis Baudoin Griffard, a biologist and educator who is committed to making biology relevant to everyone, wherever they live. Via OurBio, I hope my collaborators and I can show that textbook, universal biology can come alive with interesting local variation, in your own backyard and community, with your own family and friends. Watch…
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