The Cajun Prairie: a Natural History

The Cajun Prairie: a Natural History

The Cajun Prairie: A Natural History The Cajun Prairie: A Natural History By Malcolm F. Vidrine, Ph.D. The Division of Sciences and Mathematics (Louisiana State University Eunice) and The Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society and The Cajun Prairie Gardens (Eunice, Louisiana) Malcolm F. Vidrine Eunice, Louisiana 2010 Front Cover image: Cajun Prairie is a 14” x 18” color pencil drawing by Corinne Louise Greenberg. http://thegardenisateacher.com Cover designed by Van Reed © 2010 by Malcolm Francis Vidrine [email protected] ISBN (paper): 978-0-615-36813-9 CIP Data Dedication To my wife Gail; she has carried the burden of doing so many things to permit my interests to grow. And to my children; each provided me with a separate adventure. Like so much else, this book will be part of their legacy. I hope it helps to explain our front yard. May this book also explain many more front yards! v Contents Page Preface ..............................................................................................................................ix Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2 The people of the prairie .................................................................. 13 Chapter 3 Pre-settlement to 1870s .................................................................... 23 Chapter 4 1870s-1930s ...................................................................................... 47 Chapter 5 1940s-1970s ...................................................................................... 57 Chapter 6 1980s-2010 ........................................................................................ 63 Chapter 7 Abiotic features of the prairie .......................................................... 89 Chapter 8 Biota: Plants ....................................................................................117 Chapter 9 Biota: Animals ................................................................................141 Chapter 10 The future of the Cajun Prairie ...................................................... 163 Literature Cited................................................................................................................171 Appendix 1 Timeline for the Cajun Prairie ....................................................... 197 Appendix 2 Genealogy of MFV ........................................................................ 199 Appendix 3 Spanish land grant .......................................................................... 207 Appendix 4 Autobiographical comments ..........................................................209 Appendix 5 An essay on the Cajun Prairie of the 1600s ................................... 213 Appendix 6 Flora of the Cajun Prairie............................................................... 219 Appendix 7 French/Native American names of plants and animals ................ 229 Appendix 8 Flora of the prairies by Clair Brown .............................................. 231 Appendix 9 Phenology/blooming times of plants ............................................. 233 Appendix 10 Factors affecting blooming times .................................................. 239 Appendix 11 Animals (invertebrates) of the Cajun Prairie ............................... 241 Appendix 12 Vertebrates of the Cajun Prairie (Huner’s list) .............................. 251 Appendix 13 Flight seasons of dragonflies and butterflies ................................. 259 Appendix 14 The Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society ........................... 261 Appendix 15 The Cajun Prairie Gardens ............................................................ 267 Appendix 16 Creating or recreating a prairie by Charles Allen ......................... 269 Appendix 17 Landscaping tips ............................................................................ 275 Appendix 18 List of benefits of restoration ......................................................... 277 Appendix 19 Exotics ............................................................................................ 279 Appendix 20 Obvious blooming plants and landscaping problems .................... 281 Appendix 21 Comparison of native plant species distributions among remnant prairies in the 1980s...................................................... 283 Appendix 22 Remnant Status: Morbidity and Mortality ................................... 287 Appendix 23 Characteristics of the Cajun Prairie .............................................. 291 Appendix 24 Differences between Cajun Prairie & Midwestern prairie ........... 293 Appendix 25 Books/articles/films regarding the Cajun Prairie .......................... 295 Appendix 26 List of volunteers ............................................................................ 297 Index ................................................................................................................................301 Preface For this effort, I am taking on the role of scribe, but I am using my credentials and personal experiences to annotate the story of the Cajun Prairie—a natural story, i.e. a natural history. I have taken the liberty of making aspects of the story personal, and I hope that by doing this, I have not made the story less valid. I am not an historian, so I have relied on others with those credentials to inform the story. I am not a botanist, so I have relied on others with those credentials to inform the story. I am not a vertebrate zoologist, microbiologist, agronomist and much more, and I have relied on others to inform the story. And I am not the great organizer of people that was needed to do many of the projects described herein; however, I am just one of the workers. The story will make clear, I hope, those people who are the inspired leaders who deserve the respect and reward for their efforts. This book is really a compilation of the work of several biologists including Charles Allen, Larry Allain, Jim Grace, Bruno Borsari, Bill Fontenot, Peter Loos, Marc Pastorek, Domingo Jariel, Jameel Al-dujaili, Jay Huner, Sheila Renee Hazelton-Robichaux and Avery Williams. Claude Oubre provided guidance in my presentation of the history of the region. Tom Hillman helped with the re-evaluation of the remnant prairies. Myriam Stanford, James Cordes, John Hamlin, and others provided additional guidance. Many others helped in a variety of ways. The Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society and its members have been most instrumental in all aspects of this work. The numerous people who attended the North American Prairie Conferences over the past decade have provided lively discussion and interest in our work. Gerald Patout, LSUE Head of the Library, read the book and provided very useful comment. My plan of attack was as follows. Chapters 1 and 2 provide an introduction to the Cajun Prairie, an introduction to the people of this prairie and an introduction to the author. Chapters 3 and 4 provide a history of the Cajun Prairie based upon published journals and articles focusing on periods from pre-settlement to the 1930s, ix when the prairie was considered essentially extinguished. Chapters 5 and 6 provide the first natural history studies on the Cajun Prairie, a discussion of remnant prairies, rediscovery of the prairies in the 1980s and prairie restoration. Chapters 7-9 provide an introduction to the ecology of the Cajun Prairie, including discussions of abiotic factors (climate, fire and hydrology), plants, animals, agriculture and biodiversity. Chapter 10 provides closing remarks. Twenty-six appendices follow the text in order to provide further information on a myriad of topics, including: the author’s genealogy, lists of major plants, lists of major animals, blooming times, plant assemblages, The Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society, flight seasons of butterflies and dragonflies, restoration tips, landscaping tips, exotic plants and animals and a status report on the remnant prairies. Louisiana State University-Eunice provided me with sabbatical leave in the spring of 2008 to draft this book. Opelousas General Hospital Endowed Professorship for Science in Support of Nursing (Cajun Prairie Project) in the 2008-09 year through the LSU Eunice Foundation provided funds to help defray costs of color plates. My own Division of Sciences and Mathematics under the leadership of Renee Robichaux has provided me with not only a reasonable workplace but also with comradeship and ever-worthy intellectual challenge. Although we are heavily overworked and underappreciated, we collectively have published a remarkable number of scientific papers. Only in this atmosphere would I have been able to tackle the challenge of writing this manuscript. So thanks to all my faculty and colleagues at LSUE who in their own way would not let me quit and more insisted that I complete this effort. Gerald Patout and the LSUE library staff provided me with a variety of kinds of assistance, including interlibrary loans. Appendix 14 introduces The Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society—a non-profit organization focused on preserving and restoring Cajun Prairie. Appendix 26 lists the many people who have helped in various ways with restorations and with this book. If I have forgotten anyone, I am sorry for the omission. Any mistakes or misstatements in this book are truly my own. Works like this x are so difficult to do in that they are commonly riddled with minor errors and a couple of large ones to boot. Almost

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