Land Trust for Louisiana was featured in the Fall 2022 edition of Saving Land magazine, produced by the Land Trust Alliance (the national accrediting organization for land trusts.) They highlighted our work at Live Oak Farm, a truly special place on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.

Land Trust for Louisiana ornithologist Melanie Driscoll observes birds at sunrise on Live Oak Farm. Rice farms are an excellent site for birding, thanks to an ecosystem that attracts and supports a large variety of coastal bird species. Operated by the same family for over 100 years, Live Oak Farm in Vermilion Parish is one of Louisiana’s largest remaining rice farms. The farm is the site of the state’s first Agricultural Land Easement (ALE), which will help safeguard agricultural production and bird habitat as Louisiana’s coastal marshes disappear. The ALE project is a collaboration among the family, Land Trust for Louisiana (accredited), USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, The Conservation Fund, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and North American Wetlands Conservation Act. At the farm, a new generation of family members – young producers in their 20s and 30s – are managing an integrated, symbiotic system with rice production, wildlife habitat enhancement and responsible protection of the watershed.