The Woodlands Conservancy is a Land Trust that has been working to restore and preserve the diminished bottomland hardwood forests of Belle Chase, Louisiana for 17 years. Much of Louisiana is victim to the lasting effects of past short-term and unsustainable environmental management decisions which have now snowballed into a wide range of threats to the surrounding environment. The land owned by the Woodlands Conservancy has been carefully fostered to sustain native vegetation with the hopes of strengthening the natural landscape to be more resilient in the face of continued threats to its health. The conservancy has also been very involved in informing discussions about environmental managements decisions and also serves as a public space for people to hike and experience a forest of largely native flora and fauna.
I have been volunteering with this organization for the past 6 years, and more recently have been utilizing fixed-wing drones to help monitor the state of the forest at far greater efficiency than previous methods such as transects run by individuals who must cover miles of land. The resulting imagery has so far shown that the efforts to restore this native biome have been very effective and regular drone monitoring of this forest has helped coordinators create a more comprehensive and better-informed picture of there efforts.
