At 1,500 acres, New Orleans City Park stretches two miles from Mid-City to Lake Pontchartrain. From its inception in 1881, this expanse of urban forest and wetland provided the city’s residents with a wide variety of recreational activities, including golf, tennis and fishing. One of the 10 largest urban parks in the United States, City Park features 110 acres of lagoons and 105 acres of water in the adjoining Bayou St. John with 11 miles of shoreline.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flood put the park in a difficult situation. The storm toppled or severely damaged more than 1,000 trees and inundated the area with up to 10 feet of water from the lake.

Even before the storm, the LSU AgCenter had been at the forefront in helping City Park restore its natural wetland areas and revive the lagoons and bayous for fishing and other activities. After the storm, much of the work had to be redone.

Since its inception, City Park has been effectively self-supporting. It receives barely 2 percent of its operating funds from the state and none from the city. So with 98 percent of its income severely curtailed, the number of park employees has been reduced from 240 to 35, up from a low of 11 just after the storm. The answer to this manpower shortage has been volunteers.

“The AgCenter has been coordinating some of the volunteer efforts at City Park,” said Mark Schexnayder, fisheries agent and the AgCenter’s Hurricane Katrina recovery coordinator.

Volunteers helped by removing trees blown down by winds and removing non-native trees, primarily Chinese tallow. Non-governmental organizations supplied funds and the use of heavy equipment to help in the process.

Before the storm, an urban fisheries initiative was helping the park improve its fish habitats. Two other fisheries agents – Rusty Gaude and Brian LeBlanc – have helped develop the project, which included restocking fish and installing aeration systems in the City Park lagoons and Bayou St. John.

A master plan was developed by a number of partners, including City Park, the University of New Orleans, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the AgCenter.

“We were starting to systematically address water quality and shoreline issues,” before the hurricane, Schexnayder said. But the project took a different turn after the devastation.

“The shoreline was denuded because of salt water,” he said. As a result, “we’re planting bulrush, spartina, needle rush, native irises and seaside paspalum.”

The plant material came from Nicholls State University, the NRCS facility in Golden Meadow, local iris farms and commercial nurseries, which donated some material and sold other plants at reasonable prices. The Orleans Parish Prison also is contributing by growing plants for transplanting and raising mosquito fish released to help control mosquito populations in the area.

The AgCenter is also coordinating efforts to establish a wetlands plant center at the Pelican Greenhouse in City Park.

“Their greenhouse was under 6-7 feet of water,” Schexnayder said. “It’s been gutted and re-built with help from volunteer groups from Penn State University, Ohio State University, Michigan State University and Goldman Sachs.”

Other volunteers came from a variety of sources, including Common Ground, a community-initiated volunteer organization in New Orleans, and Operation Blessing, an international humanitarian organization based in Virginia Beach, Va.

“We also received grants from Master Gardeners from across the country, Goldman Sachs and Bayou Land Resource Conservation District,” Schexnayder said. “And the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation is a partner.”

Schexnayder cited thousands of volunteer hours contributed to rehabilitating the park. He estimates more than 10,000 plants have been planted, with thousands more to go.

Lake Pontchartrain feeds into Bayou St. John, so it’s brackish. The bayou subsequently feeds into the City Park lagoons, so the water nearest to the bayou is more saline while the water into the park becomes fresher.

“Bayou St. John and the lagoons are some of the only estuarine-influenced water bodies in a city park in the country,” Schexnayder said.

In years past, New Orleans had the oldest freshwater bass rodeo in the country. After some years of falling participation, the rodeo had been coming back with help from the AgCenter and other agencies. To help in the recovery, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries began restocking the lagoons with fish this past fall. Work is also under way to dig a freshwater well being supported by donations from Operation Blessing.

“The freshwater side of the lagoons is fed mostly by rainwater,” Schexnayder said. “The well will help to manage water quality in the lagoons to help freshwater fish spawn.” The lagoons, which were hand-dug by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, average 3 to 5 feet in depth, with nothing deeper than 8 to 10 feet. The number of fish that can live in these waters is based on holding capacity, which is influenced by the amount of food available to them, Schexnayder said.

Plants are important because they take up nutrients and bond them, then release them when they die and decompose. They also offer protective hiding places for young fish. The wetlands experts are trying to re-establish eel grass in Bayou St. John to support a larger fish population.

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