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Groundhog Sawmills

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published October 31, 2016 at 9:00 AM EDT

Except for coastal marshlands and tallgrass prairies of the southwest, Louisiana was historically a world of forests. Virgin stands of longleaf pine in the central part of the state, primeval bottomland hardwoods and cypress swamps, along with upland hardwoods and pines in the hill country were viewed by settlers as both daunting obstacles and coveted natural resources in the form of potential wood products.

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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