For four weeks, five young adults from Houston rolled up their sleeves and went out into the woods and waters around Spring Bayou to make a beautiful place even more beautiful.
“I had never seen a swamp system before,” Ian McKay, crew leader of the Student Conservation Association-Houston group, said. “I have worked in coastal areas. To see 30-foot wide bald cypress trees was breathtaking. Spring Bayou is very beautiful.”
McKay’s team arrived in Avoyelles on April 3 and began work on April 6. They finished on May 3. By the time they left, they had filled a large dumpster with about five tons of trash and debris.
Past Spring Bayou Restoration Team (SBRT) President Jim Landry said the five young adults — McKay, Sarah Beardsley, Griselda Rincon, Jennifer Torres and Rianna Reyes — worked hard and accomplished a lot during their short stay in Avoyelles.
The group attended the Avoyelles Police Jury agenda-setting meeting May 3 and were warmly greeted and thanked for their hard work by jurors. McKay said the group was impressed by the hospitality of the area.
“The people here are so nice,” he said. “I have never seen anything like it.” He told jurors that in addition to the local hospitality, he and his crew members enjoyed the local cuisine.
“We really threw down on some crawfish,” he said.