The houseboat chronicles

January 14-21, 2011

Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Manangement Area. Pass-a-Loutre. Pass-a-Loutre. Pass-a-Loutre.

My fate had really been sealed. I'm not sure if going to any of the other destinations would have been as epic of a time in my life than this one. I feel very lucky for being in this opportunity. Lucky for more than the obvious reasons. This last week have really been a life changing and interesting time. It will be very hard to come out of this the same. I stand by the fact it has more to do with this assignment than the job itself.

Pass-a-Loutre WMA sits an hour boat ride south of Venice, La. Venice sits as the last town on the Mississippi River. Driving down from New Orleans, you follow the Mississippi River for an hour and a half, passing refineries and small towns, till you finally arrive in Venice. Outside the Venice Marina sits a sign announcing Venice as the best fishing town in the nation. It is very hard to argue with this statement. You will see more fish jump in one day here then in your entire life. They essentially never stop jumping, all times of the day, increasing in the evening.

The Mississippi River is a massive river. Truly Massive. Traveling all the way from Minnesota to the end of Louisiana. By the time it reaches Venice it is near a mile wide. The Mississippi transports an ungodly amount of sediment downriver, and over the millions of years has created most of eastern and southern Louisiana. This sediment carries nutrients and land building materials. If you look at the southeastern portion of Louisiana you are looking at the Mississippi River Delta. A delta is an alluvial fan shaped area where land is created from the mouth of a river. And that's where Pass-a-Loutre sits. The southeastern edge of the delta is a state controlled Wildlife Management Area. Most of the rest of the area is unsettled, except for a literal handful of hunting shacks. Most of the delta is uninhabitable, or very nearly. There are no roads, everything is accessible only by boat, to build something it has to be floated down river, and any TV has to be satellite. To get groceries you have to travel up river, then 30 miles to a decent grocery store.

And this is where I will be for the next month.

With my fellow tech, Dan Landgrebe, former park service employee. Dan was born in Bemidji, Minnesota. The very BEGINNING of the Mississippi. Yes, friends, he just traveled from the very first town on the Mississippi to the very last, and now lives at the literal end of the Mississippi. A feat few will every say they have accomplished.

I want you to google maps this. Find Venice, Louisiana and follow it till the river splits into three sections. The western most is called Southwest Pass, the middle is South Pass, and the east is Pass-a-Loutre. Now inbetween South Pass and Pass-a-Loutre is a small inlet called Dennis Pass. Just down Dennis Pass is where I live. It's the first and only house down Dennis Pass. If I'd have to guess it's address is probably 1 Dennis Pass, Pass-a-Loutre WMA, La.

The Pass-a-Loutre WMA is managed at this point. It has a small complex of buildings built right after Hurricane Katrina. While I call it an island, most of the land for 30 miles in all directions are kinda their own island. Here there are two passes on either side of the island, and two inlets leading in. The passes never connect, and there's two very narrow land bridges where the inlets end. The complex covers perhaps two acres of land. It contains one boat parking dock, one major dock, a maintenance building, boat house, an air boat house, a house boat, and a very nice headquarters that includes full industrial kitchen and bedrooms. I live on the house boat, which is really a double wide placed on a giant metal barge. While most of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries workers live in the nice house, anybody not affiliated with the state are thrown into the boathouse. This includes any NRDA (National Resource Disaster Agency, this is a federal agency), and Entrix employees. We've already had one Entrix employee working NRDA stay here. So atleast we're all treated equal. Since the oilspill this house and been filled with atleast one group of people.

This leads me to why I feel fine saying all this. Where I am is no secret, and Entrix itself has been to this property and knows we are here. Infact, from here on out except extreme situations I will only be talking about what I do in my free time. I will say I enjoy what I do, it's very different from other things I've done and a fascinating area to be in.

Pass-a-Loutre blows Lumcon out of the water. While my mobility is even less than in Lumcon, the opportunities and untouched wilderness is greater. I'm surrounded by wilderness for 30 miles in every direction. Some nights tens of coyotes howl in every direction. Every 100 meters a new heron of the same species makes its home. I've seen three different species of heron standing next to each other. There are sounds all times of the day, that I have yet to identify. Ibis of every species fly over hourly. I've already seen 2 life birds, and seen so many uncommon species of birds it blows my mind. I know where at least three osprey territories are. Infact you see one osprey every Kilometer. Let me list some of the individual birds that make their home in the complex's 2 acres:

1 Great-blue Heron Adult and juvenile

1 Snowy egret

1 Great Egret

1+ White Ibis

1 American Bittern (yes this is a fact)

2-4 Brown Pelican

1 Common Snipe

1 Merlin

2 (possibly paired) Harriers

2 (paired) Belted Kingfishers

2+ Marsh Wrens

2 (probably paired) Mockingbirds

A troupe of Yellow-rumped Warblers

A troupe of Palm Warblers

A family of Nutria

A family of River Otters (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Tell me, how many of these do you see every day? I see almost all of these daily in my backyard.

Now let's include the animals I see daily while traveling around the delta for work.

Tri-colored Heron

Little Blue Heron

Glossy Ibis

Ahninga

Osprey

Peregrine Falcon (true as well)

Black Skimmer

Dolphins (atleast 10 a day)

I know I am tooting my own horn and bragging, but I don't care I am so freaking excited every day I go out. I have to. I just have to tell someone, or everyone.

The majority of the marsh in this area is Fragmities, which is a reed species almost twice as tall as any man. They encompass over 90% of the above ground plant biomass (my guess). It doesn't even need exposed land, creating its own marsh where you can't stand. Sometimes it breaks off and floats out to sea, still in a meter wide island.

The river delta creates a very unique situation where salt water and freshwater mix continuously. There's rumors you can catch Redfish in the middle of the water, and Bass on the edge. It is so rich that fish jump continuously in the inlet we're docked at. The river otters go nuts at night eating the fish, as do the Pelicans. At sea the Dolphins are a common sight, sometimes staying with you, but never coming within 10 meters. I wonder if this has to do with the rich fishing water that surround the delta.

Some of the inhabitants are very strange. There are two pelicans that never leave the island. Most pelicans have no trouble traveling many kilometers daily. These only move from one inlet to the other. They fish in the inlet we're docked at. They sleep near the house. They let you come to about 10 meters before flying off. Anytime they land, they land head first in the water, in a half dive.

I heard a rumor from one of the locals that these two pelicans were found covered in oil, cleaned up, and released here. Instead of flying off, they stayed, and never left. I understand that the rumors from locals aren't fact, but I will just say they act very strange.

When catching fish, Brown Pelicans do spectacular dives into the water. They don't do this when they land. I personally believe something happened to them, either the extremely toxic oil has affected their brains, or something happened from after being covered in oil (perhaps a crash). They are wonderful, very charismatic, and cute. But shouldn't be acting like this, even though our inlet seems to be a breeding water for fish. It could be as easy as them being conditioned to humans as well. I do hear they get fed scrapes by the locals. So this is possible.

Some of the human inhabitants are strange as well. The facility normal houses about 2-3 employees plus the manager and his wife. The employees stay here for two weeks, and then are forced to take a week off to, “get all that junk out of their system”. Most of the employees and visitors are country boys, and avid hunters. They all chew tobacco, and love shooting things. Suffice to say, staying in the boat house probably fits better than being in the house.

Me and Dan are starting to believe the isolation causes humans to behave strangely. The manager and his wife essentially don't leave the island. They don't take their breaks. They own another house, but haven't been to it in months. Imagine living on a 2 acre piece of land for months at a time. Only talking to the same 5 people. You watch news, but it doesn't affect you. You can't go anywhere. You can't exercise. You don't seen anything. You don't see the world evolving. You only meet one extreme group of people. It'd affect you right?

I've seen a few of the employees walking in circles, just to get exercise.

The manger and his wife exhibit extreme paranoia. They sway on their trust of us daily. Sometimes being very friendly, then very stand offish. They give us free reign of the house boat, then take it away without explanation. The complex is covered in light at night. Outdoor lights sit at every possible point, like a prison. At night the owner stands out on the balcony and flashes a spotlight back and forth, every 30 minutes.

And yet you sit at one of the safest locations in the country. Any possible thieves would be the ones sleeping in your house. Any war or none natural disaster would perhaps never find you. There is nothing for the coyotes to eat even if they came into the complex. Zombies might never even get to you. Plagues. Murders. Zero.

They have extreme short term memory issues, asking us 4 days in a row if we've signed the guestbook.

Maybe I'm making things up, but they act very strange. Hopefully with time these claims are all unfounded. That's probably the case anyway. They can be very nice at times. I just wish they'd stay that way.

The problem with this is the internet sits in the headquarters, which isn't a headquarters, it's a beautiful house. And getting on the internet means sitting in their kitchen or living room while they sit in it looking over your shoulder. They're not very inviting, becoming very surprised when we walk in asking to use the internet. Luckily I get a single bar of internet on my phone, and can check my facebook, mail, and weather with a little bit of difficulty. This keeps me pretty content. It's also why I can't update very often. The internet is by satellite, and I suspect because of this the upload had to be done through a telephone line. Meaning uploading pictures is extremely difficult. And with blogger taking long anyway to accomplish on a good connection, I won't even attempt it here. If you want to see pictures, I will upload them to Facebook. Which requires I resize all images by 75%, and upload individually. I have to use the 'simple uploader' which is more forgiving on slow connections.

There is pages more to say. But perhaps I'll continue later on this. For now, dear readers, this is what you get. I still have to tell you about what is simply called, “The Incident”.

I'm fairly positive I haven't said anything confidential.

Till we meet again.

Goodnight,

Matt