Author Archives: John Shepard

Horn Island and the Islander: artist Walter Anderson

Posted on April 21, 2011

Nat and I began our eight-mile crossing of Mississippi Sound by kayak in late afternoon sunlight. Our destination—Horn Island, a 12-mile-long barrier island parallel to the Mississippi coast—was somewhere out of sight just beyond the horizon. I paused a short … Continue reading →

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Mulch mania: Dean Wilson’s battle for the Atchafalaya cypress

Posted on April 11, 2011

On Saturday, Dean Wilson was frying a small mountain of fish in the kitchen of his tiny bayou-side house with its wood-burning stove and rusting tin roof. A few chickens and a rooster were pecking around outside beside his johnboat and … Continue reading →

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‘Alligator mississippiensis’ and my reptilian brain

Posted on April 6, 2011

When I encountered our fiftieth alligator (give or take) my own reptilian brain woke up with a start. It was three days ago, when Nat and I were kayaking Bayou LaBranch in golden late-afternoon sunshine.  The surrounding cypress trees had … Continue reading →

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Louche New Orleans

Posted on April 3, 2011

After a couple of weeks staying here in the Crescent City, I stumbled on a word this morning that fits the place in several ways: louche. This, according to my dictionary, means “disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing … Continue reading →

Posted in Coastal Development, Gulf Culture | Tagged | 2 Comments

An oil-spill warrior and a flight along the coast

Posted on April 1, 2011

For the past year Steve Jenkins has been thinking a lot about beaches. As slicks of BP oil began making their way across the Gulf toward the Alabama shore last April, the staff of his Field Operations Division of Alabama’s … Continue reading →

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The Whooping Cranes of Aransas: a Survival Story

Posted on March 5, 2011

To watch whooping cranes methodically pluck blue crabs from a salt marsh along the Texas Gulf coast with their long beaks is to stand close enough to the precipice of extinction that you could almost throw a rock into the void. … Continue reading →

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The Apalachicola Water War

Posted on February 20, 2011

As they say out West, “whiskey’s for drinkin’ and water’s for fightin’.” Well, the same folk wisdom has applied in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river system since the 1980s, when the upstream neighbor, Georgia, wanted to start taking even more water … Continue reading →

Posted in Water Issues | 2 Comments

The Perils of Petrol: Perspectives on Oil, Gasoline, and the Gulf

Posted on February 15, 2011

Though I haven’t shared the story widely up until this post, our 3rd Coast Connect adventure got off to a perilous start. It all had to do with the fossil fuels that propel the Boudreaux—along with so much else in … Continue reading →

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Mardi Gras: Dauphin Island Style

Posted on February 12, 2011

Dauphin Island’s Mardi Gras parade is the first in the nation each year, and with a warm sun shining down upon us this morning we couldn’t resist staying on the island an extra day for a little bons temps as … Continue reading →

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Oysters and Us

Posted on February 12, 2011

Yet again yesterday, our explorations reinforced connections between the well-being of Gulf Coast natural and social environments and those of us who live far from the shore. Our lessons came from a field excursion to some fledgling oyster reefs and … Continue reading →

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