News -> INDReporter FRI, MAY 4 10:58AM by Wynce Nolley

St. Martin cypress swipe


The St. Martin Parish School Board voted Wednesday night in favor of selling and logging 450 acres of a cypress-tupelo swamp it owns in Section 16 of the Atchafalaya Basin.

Several concerned St. Martin Parish citizens, including the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper Dean Wilson, were present at Wednesday’s board meeting in Breaux Bridge to voice their outrage.

“It’s not sustainable, you lose the trees forever,” says Wilson. “We explained to the school board that it’s the most important asset that our kids have in the parish because there is no place in the entire world like the Atchafalya Basin.”

Wilson says he has spoken with the timber company Good Hope Inc., which the school board has contracted for the logging. And while Good Hope said it was willing to back out of the contract, the school board is not.

“Trees are a huge asset,” Wilson says. “They have a huge potential for ecotourism and education, but (the school board) completely ignored that and decided to cut the trees down anyway.”

Aside from destroying a pristine habitat for the continent's migratory birds and a gorgeous buffer from those pesky hurricanes, the school board seeks to reap a one-time reward of $148 per acre (or $88,200 after Good Hope gets its pound of flesh) to line its budget. That’s small chips considering the trees would take several hundred years for the trees to mature that is if they can at all in the face of the nutria population and yearly flooding.

But Wilson and his fellow cypress lovers are ready for the fight.

“We believe that the logging will be illegal so we are going to send letters of intent this week against the timber company and against the school board,” says Wilson.

Wilson refers to RS 41:1009  which states:

Cutting or sale, or both, of cypress timber on stateowned water bottoms; prohibition
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, particularly R.S. 41:1001 through R.S. 41:1008, the cutting or sale, or both, of standing cypress timber located on any water bottom owned by the state of Louisiana is hereby prohibited except in the exercise of rights under a state lease, right-of-way, or permit. However, the secretary of the Department of Natural Resources may, at his discretion, permit the selective cutting of such timber.


And as you may have guessed, the Section 16 swamp  is considered a state-owned water bottom. 

If you want to join the Basinkeeper's campaign to save these precious state resouces and help protect other Atchafalaya cypress swamps for future generations, visit his website here.


Comments (7)add
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written by Dudley E. LaBauve, III , May 04, 2012 - 05:05 pm
Why does the school board own swamp land in the first place? By the way, $88 grand can't amount to squat in relation to the school system budget, Jeez! I don't know the whole story, but, it smells bad!
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written by Robert Guercio , May 04, 2012 - 06:36 pm
I'll buy the trees and swamp area and preserve the area.
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written by Robert Guercio , May 04, 2012 - 06:37 pm
Was their a public offering for this premium land?
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written by Gene Broussard , May 04, 2012 - 10:40 pm
Very sad. But, it is St Martin Parish which is not a bastion of intellectual giants.
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written by Michael A. Moss , May 04, 2012 - 11:15 pm
If you look at the clear cutting that happened on Lake Henderson, you have to ask yourself this question. Were the politicians of the past related to the DUMB COONASS POLITICIANS OF TODAY in St. Martin Parish!
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written by Greg Guirard , May 05, 2012 - 12:36 am
I was one of the speakers allowed 5 minutes to address the School Board on this subject. I pointed out that the official Louisiana poster shows a cypress stump as the state tree. How ironically appropriate and tragic. I am a board member of Atchafalaya Basinkeeper. Please join us in saving these cypress trees. Mr. Guercio, please call me: 394-4631.
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written by chano leal , May 06, 2012 - 09:25 pm
$ 88,000.00, how hard up is Saint Martinville School Board,
to bend over for $ 88,000.00.
Where are the " Idiot St. Martinville voters, aren't the citizens responsible for voting in the schoolboard members, Jesus, what stupidity !
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