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Bayou Diversity: 20 Years of Connections

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published September 14, 2015 at 9:00 AM EDT

When I began writing Bayou-Diversity programs more than 20 years ago, there was little talk of conservation issues in this region unless they threatened or enhanced hunting and fishing opportunities. Especially as our population becomes more urban and insulated from the natural world, there seemed to be a need to provide basic information about native flora and fauna. Even more important is the necessity to educate folks of matters that threaten our local ecosystems and often times us in the process.

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Kelby Ouchley

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.

See stories by Kelby Ouchley