Greetings,

The Coastal Plant Ecology Lab at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, is seeking adult volunteers to assist with a large-scale, experimental barrier island planting projects in swale habitat at the New Cut barrier island restoration project on Trinity Island and salt marsh plantings on Whiskey Island.  We will be planting approximately 12,000 plants, which will greatly contribute to improving these barrier islands for important coastal species such as the brown pelican.

The dates for the swale project are September 27th (with volunteers arriving the evening of September 26th) through October 8th, 2010, though we may finish before that time.  The dates for the salt marsh project are October 11th through October 15th.  We will provide housing at the Louisiana University Marine Consortium (LUMCON), breakfast, a box lunch, and gatorade each day.  You will be responsible for your dinner and you may either to go to a local restaurant or bring food to cook in a shared kitchen.

Any amount of help would be sincerely appreciated, whether only a day, or several days.  We recommend arriving the night before your first day of volunteer service to ensure timely morning boat departures.

Each day volunteers will take an exciting boat ride from picturesque Cocodrie to Louisiana's important barrier island restoration sites!  Once we arrive on site, we will work as teams to carefully lay-out and plant our native species within an experimental design.  It is not uncommon to see various coastal bird species while on the island and dolphins while traveling by boat through the marsh.

Please reply to Christine Pickens (christine.pickens@gmail.com ), to let us know your availability so that we can plan accordingly.  In your reply, please include your full name, phone number, which day(s) you can come, and any other special information, such as if you follow a vegetarian diet.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

We sincerely appreciate your consideration of this opportunity to help establish plants for large-scale manipulative experiments that will greatly enhance our knowledge base for improved future restoration success.

Thank you very much!

Christine Pickens and the Coastal Plant Ecology Lab