Visionary art from the swamp

By Janet Tompkins

Adam Morales Sr., the Driftwood Man of Pierre Part, La. has two galleries showing his sculptures made from the cypress driftwood he finds in the water and along the banks of the Atchafalaya Basin.

The first showcase is the front yard of his house located right on the Pierre Part bayou in Assumption Parish. The second is the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Md. where two of his pieces will be on display till September 2010.

His 10-foot-tall Lady Liberty and the flag sculpture called the Star Spangled Banner are 100 percent driftwood that is nailed, screwed or wired together to make the piece.

“I don’t carve,” said the 62-year-old folk artist. “Mother Nature carves it. I can just look at it and see what it will be.” His method of finding the right piece for a body, a head or a torch is painstakingly slow but his inventory of driftwood pieces covers front yard, side yard, and back yard of his home near the end of the bay road.

Right now he has been on a search for Abraham Lincoln’s head and body for the Lincoln Memorial that is underway. “I’ll know it when I see it,” he says.

He goes out in his 18-foot aluminum boat —usually about 2 a.m.–– into the Basin.  “It’s just me and God and Mother Nature.” Using light from a beam on his boat, he searches for the best pieces of driftwood. “When I find a piece I say  ‘Thank you Jesus.’ Then it’s just like a puzzle I put together.”

He washes the wood, uses a wire brush on parts of it and then fits them together. No paints or preservatives are used. 

“Sometimes I am looking for a certain piece but sometime I am surprised to find a piece that I can see right away what it will be,” he says. He walks around the piles of driftwood not yet pieced together and points out the head of an alligator, the back end of a duck, even as he maneuvers through those pieces already finished.

There is a patriotic or a Christian feel to much of the art –– the Twin Towers, the Iwo Jima statue, Noah’s Ark and even a blend of the two with the Ten Commandments in honor of Judge Roy Moore. Animals, wildlife, prehistoric birds are in the yard, on the roof of his house and across the street in front of his workshop where he toils when the weather is cold. The shop is only a remnant of a larger building destroyed by Hurricane Gustav.

Storms are a problem for an artist whose gallery is on a bayou in south Louisiana. For the hurricanes of late it takes a week to lay down the bigger pieces and secure them. He evacuated to Prairieville, but not before the local Sheriff’s office said they would look out for his driftwood treasures because Adam Morales had local fame even before the show in Maryland.

He returned to the damaged area that had high water and then suffered through 10 days of no electricity. “Then I started again.”

Morales grew up in Pierre Part as one of 15 children in a small house near his current one.  He was raised to fish for turtles, crawfish, garfish and catfish in the swamps and bayous. He became a carpenter and a commercial fisherman at age 17.  For years he admired the driftwood as he fished and occasionally brought pieces home that he would dry and set aside. His first piece was one that he thought resembled the body of the Loch Ness monster. It took several more years before he stumbled upon the head and neck, but he just put them aside as he did the other pieces.

Then 17 years ago injury and osteoarthritis ended his job. Bones in his arm and wrist were fused and he was unsure what to do next.

“I was depressed—I had been busy all the time,” he remembers. “I was bored.” One day he decided to make his Loch Ness monster to put in the bayou right in front of his house. “I always like to see weird stuff.”  He actually thought people would laugh at him but instead he got compliments and unexpected attention that encouraged him to make more. That first piece was destroyed in the recent storm but “baby” Loch Ness is still in the water.

He filled the yard with his pieces. Curious locals came by, then school children took field trips to his home and he became a stop for visitors a little off the beaten path.

One such visitor was Roger Manley, an author and art curator and a specialist in outsider art. He was working on a book called “Weird Louisiana” that just came out this year.

At the end of the road in Pierre Part he found Adam Morales and documented his work. Later when called upon to be the curator for the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Manley arranged for Morales’ two pieces to be entered.

“They came in a big truck, bubble wrapped it and sent it to the museum. They insured it for $50,000,” Morales says with pride. When they unwrapped it in Baltimore he said the museum workers got a scare when two lizards jumped out of the statue. Morales grins but isn’t surprised. “It’s been standing in my yard all these years.”

Manley says Morales should be considered a treasure. “He has an amazing ability to envision something and keep that in his head,” he says. With the Statue of Liberty so familiar to visitors in Baltimore, Manley said they could easily understand and be impressed with his art and his interpretation of his native milieu––the swamp. “He was one of the most popular figures in the show.”  Manley said every one of the broadcasters interviewed Morales about his art.

Morales had not planned to attend the show. “I’d never flown,” he says and he wasn’t interested in starting. But a local friend and patron Dr. Chip Metz and others bought him a plane ticket and encouraged him to go with one of his daughters. He did and was a hit with the show, not only with his sculptures but also with his Cajun accent.

But he says that’s his last plane ride. He’s staying in Pierre Part. A daughter, Paula, has chronicled his fame as an artist in scrapbooks and she gives her impression of her Dad’s new career. “At first I thought it was cute and funny. When he told me he was getting ready to do the Statue of Liberty I wondered ‘What is he thinking?’ When I saw it I was completely blown away. The eyes, the nose —I never thought I’d see so much detail.”

He grins as she finishes. He interjects often in the conversation that he’s not an educated man but his face is unlined, his smile is easy and he says his life is happy. He hasn’t sold any of his art pieces although he does sell some driftwood chairs or a few small animals. The wall of his house is filled with memorabilia including newspaper clippings about his art and his photo with the likes of actress Eva Marie Saint or forensic scientist Henry Lee.

“I just take what some people call junk out of the woods to create something with meaning.” He points out a standing group of large driftwood he refers to as “his body parts’ and out in the Atchafalaya he expects to find the perfect head for Abe Lincoln around the next corner.

(Janet Tompkins has been editor of Forests & People for the last 15 years.)

Louisiana Boys of the CCC

Tuesday, October 29, 1929, was the day the stock market crashed and the world economy plummeted to begin the Great Depression.  Unemployment rose to 25 percent or more and by 1932, millions were unemployed.  The hardest hit were the masses of untrained youth in both metropolitan and rural settings.  No region of Louisiana was spared from the impact of the failing economy.

But the new administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt marked the beginning of the reforms known as the New Deal. FDR had a number of programs including the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and the National Recovery Administration (NRA). Historians agree though that none was as successful as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

In just two weeks after taking office, Roosevelt had legislation before Congress to create a program to solve the unemployment dilemma of young Americans.  In one month and one day after taking office, FDR signed Executive Order 6101 creating the Civilian Conservation Corps –– the CCC.  Roosevelt’s “tree army” was born.

The CCC had a multi-purpose: to provide meaningful employment to the scores of unemployed youth and to conserve the nation’s resources. Work camps were established and administered by the Army to carry out the CCC  mission

Each enrollee, as the young workers were referred, signed-on for a six month term for duties that ranged from reforestation to erosion abatement and even mosquito control.  Eventually over three million men served in the Corps. 

The “boys,” as they were collectively called, were housed, fed, clothed and medical care provided under the Executive Order.  In addition to food and lodging, each new enrollee was paid $30 a month but $25 of that was sent home to their families.  Equivalent to about $400 today, the family allotment often meant a roof over their heads and food on the table.  Moreover, those monies were put in general circulation to spark the national economy.   An enrollee could advance to the grade of leader and his pay increased to $45 a month with $30 of that forwarded to his home.

The CCC was truly the great American experiment.  In 1933, the Corps was hastily structured from an experimental concept following general guidelines drafted by Washington.  Louisiana CCC camps were hurriedly built to satisfy the conditions for each individual encampment area and camp policies differed to achieve end results established by the unit’s military commander.  Every chief officer was permitted a broad area of discretion under the unprecedented circumstances.

Camps consisted of young men from 18-24 and were usually not integrated. Camps of black CCC workers did much of the levee work in the state.  An exception to the age ceiling were those camps manned or supported by “previous service” personnel, veterans from WWI, such as the one at Woodworth.

The CCC was a structured organization.  Enrollees, assistant leaders, leaders, and former service personnel were lead by army officers through a military chain of command but ultimately administered by a civilian director in Washington.  Although classified with U. S. Department of Agriculture designations, a majority of projects were determined by Louisiana agencies.

Priorities included soil erosion abatement and reforestation but other tasks of the newly formed tree army dealt with construction or revitalization of state and national parks. In 1933, World War I veterans undertook restoration of Alexander State Forest near Woodworth,  and completed the  work seven years later.  Improvements to the initially semi-barren land included forestation, a log administrative building, and a fire tower believed to be the tallest in the world at that time.

To expedite reforestation and new construction projects, Louisiana CCC camps were accessible to an existing rail lines whenever possible.  An uninterrupted flow of manpower and supplies was critical to the success of the projects.

Work in Louisiana included building firebreaks, bridges, campgrounds, trails, mosquito control plus forestry  building construction and fire lookout towers in the state and national forests.

The accomplishments of CCC projects in Louisiana alone are staggering.  Over 165 million trees were planted. Over 3700 bridges and 3,000 miles of fences were built.  The miles of firebreaks cleared by the Louisiana boys could cross our country and halfway back again.  During the nine years of service, CCC enrollees spent over a 100,000 man-days fighting forest fires.

Fire fighting was important but crews also fenced pine plantations to protect the new seedlings from wild hogs.

Early on in Louisiana, the camp structures were usually made from rough cut lumber with a tarpaper material for installation in the early years.  In some cases, tent-like structures with rough-cut floors, waist-high wooden walls and a peaked canvas roof served as  housing.  Enclosed, open-pit latrine outhouses were positioned on the edge of the encampment.  For personal hygiene, a centrally located bathhouse provided a place for a shower and shave at the end or beginning of their long workday. Later barracks were built for the camps.

After work, the men could congregate in the dayroom which offered off-duty enrollees a place to grab a snack, lounge, play pool or ping pong or read from a small library. On average, an enrollee’s formal education above elementary school level was rare and those classified as illiterate topped 40 percent.   Each of the CCC camps had an education officer and men could attend the classes offered there. Most of the men went into the army when they left the CCC.

CCC leadership was administered by military officers drawn from both active and reserve units.  Although the camp life was regimented, great care was taken not to mirror the so-called youth camps found in Nazi Germany.  Fledgling enrollees had the chance to be promoted to assistant leaders and then leaders. 

Louisiana enrollees were  stationed in camps as near to home as possible, but many of the men were in locations far from home. Louisiana had about 30 major camps but satellite encampment areas were constructed and then abandoned after a project was completed..

On the first day of enrollment, each man would be issued a basic personal care kit of soap, razor, toothbrush, and tooth powder. After a short “basic training” period, the enrollees were assigned their duties.  Selected enrollees may have qualified for specialties in clerical, food service, mechanic, or as a medical assistant but most could be considered CCC foot soldiers.

In all, about 51,820 men served in the Louisiana Civilian Conservation Corps during its nine years of operation.

Over 70 years later, the nation including Louisiana is still reaping benefits from the CCC.  The enrollees reforested much of Louisiana setting the stage for further work after World War II.

National and state parks carved from wilderness areas are the forest preserves we enjoy today.

The financial transfusion from this organization pumped desperately needed revenues in the local economies and hometowns across the nation.  The Corps took hungry, unemployed youth off the streets and gave them hope for a future.  

Sometimes there would be some friction between the locals and the residents of the CCC camps. Enrollees seemed more likely to  have a dollar in their pocket for a Saturday night date with Cokes, popcorn, a movie and maybe a stop for a milkshake on the walk back to her home.  After all, a Coke or a bag of  tobacco was each a nickel, a drug store sundae 15 cents and a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes 11 cents. Considering all the enrollee’s essentials were provided by the CCC, the five dollar a month wage went a long way.

With the beginning of World War II.  young men either volunteered to serve or were conscripted to fill the ranks in military service.  Human resources shifted from Roosevelt’s “tree army” to a military force at war on two fronts.

Overnight, the CCC took low priority to the well-being of the nation.  By early 1942, funding was redirected to the war effort and the Civilian Conservation Corps was dissolved.

The CCC also contributed to the war effort by setting the stage for the Louisiana Maneuvers to be held in this state. The bridges, trails and barrack facilities made a perfect setting for the drills and the CCC funds were used to purchase land for the maneuvers.

As many stories of the CCC exist as the number of men who served.  The number of former enrollees is diminishing.  It is our responsibility to collect and preserve these stories so important in Louisiana history. 

(Thanks to Matt Troll, Dr. Anna Burns,  and Dr. Jim Barnett for their assistance in this article. The CCC files of Anna Burns have been donated to the Southern Forest Heritage Museum and will become a permanent part of the museum’s historical records.

Anyone who would like to donate CCC records, photos or memorabilia should contact the museum at (318) 748-8404 or email  longleaf@centurytel. net.)

Military base boasts the most champion trees in the state

By Janet Tompkins

Dr. Charles Allen, botanist employed at Fort Polk in Leesville, becomes the champion of champion tree hunters this month after nominating 51 new champs or co-champs to the Louisiana Directory.

The Louisiana Forestry Association facilitates the Big Tree Program in the state that recognizes the top native and naturalized species based on a point system that includes circumference, height and crown spread. Thanks to Dr. Allen Vernon Parish now has the most state champions with several that will be nominated as national champions.

As a part of a team from Colorado State University that manages federal lands across the U.S., Allen and his co-workers inventory the forests at the military base, Peason Ridge and the part of Kisatchie used by the military. In working on the more than 100,000 acres he takes note of trees that might become champions.

 In the last few years he has accumulated a few champions but this year he turned in 59 nominations. Not all made the list, but a majority of them are either champions or co-champions.

“Some are overlooked species,” he said, where there was no champion. “Hopefully others will be inspired to look for something bigger.”

Allen grew up in southeast Louisiana and he remembers helping his grandmother, who was part Cherokee, gather sage for her sausage-making. When he enrolled at LSU, he majored in forestry and dendrology (tree identification) was one of his favorite subjects. After a stint in the Army he got a master’s degree from LSU and his doctorate in botany from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

At LSU he had a class under Dr. Clair Brown, author of several books cataloguing Southern trees and other plants. He first began his teaching career at LSU at Eunice and then spent 10 years at the University of Louisiana at Monroe where he first nominated several champion trees.

He nominated a champion sweetleaf that first made the list, then was dethroned. Now he has two of the species as co-champs at Fort Polk.

The protocol for Dr. Allen and his co-workes is to inventory and then mark any special trees or rare plants. His search for champion trees is like a treasure hunt as the crews work.

“It’s not just me,” said Allen. “There are 40 pairs of eyes looking for these trees.”

There were several other trees from different parishes that are also new this year.

Richard Reeves of Kinder has the new champion common persimmon in his back yard. Steve Smith of Merryville will have his pecan tree registered as a state champion.

There are two new co-champion American hollies: Llewellyn Smith owns one in DeRidder and the other is in Lake Claiborne State Park in Ouachita Parish.  The state park in Homer also has an American Hornbeam champion reported by Aubrey Simpkins, Jr.

The new sweetgum in Evangeline Parish is owned by Crowell Lumber Company and is near Turkey Creek.

The champion cherrybark oak was knocked down last year in a storm but West Feliciana offers a new champion owned by Joel and Sandi Smith  in their front yard in Weyanoke.

Iberville Parish has a new American elm owned by Tom Holiday near Bayou Hooper and reported by Glen Poche of Baton Rouge.

Lincoln Parish has the new champion post oak  in Ruston in Johnny Armstrong’s yard. The tree was reported by Robert Ellis of Ellis Forestry.

A sweetbay magnolia in Union Parish  is owned by Miller Booth of Farmerville and reported by Scotty Booth.

A sugarberry champ in West Feliciana is located in St. Francisville in the yard of Douglas and Sonya Laglois and reported by their neighbor Corey Grimsley.

The new champion winged elm is in East Feliciana and is owned by Bob McConnell of Norwood.

Nomination forms for new champion trees are found on the LFA website at www.laforestry.com.

Coalbed methane - promise and problems possible

By Steve Gleason

Louisiana is blessed to have an abundance of resources.  Agriculture, forestry, fisheries, oil and gas and the industries they support drive the economy of our state.  In recent times, the development of the oil and gas resource has not infringed or reduced to any great degree the prospect of developing the other resources.

In my experience the development of oil and gas in the Cotton Valley and Hosston sands and now the Haynesville shale has been very positive for landowners, communities, and Louisiana. These plays generally are developed by well capitalized companies that treat landowners fairly, and do an amazing job constructing all weather roads and drilling sites, reestablishing vegetation on disturbed ground and reducing erosion using various methods. Typically their operations are widely spaced and do not greatly disrupt forestry or farming operations. When a problem arises they have the financial strength to correct it.

Most landowners are probably not familiar with coalbed methane (CBM) which is in its infancy as a resource in Louisiana. The development of the coalbed methane resource, if properly regulated, could be another economic plus for landowners of our state but without proper regulation could be a nightmare for forestry and farming interests.

Coalbed methane is natural gas found within the thin layer (typically 30 feet) of coal which underlies most of Louisiana north of Alexandria.  CBM occurs at depths of 2500 to 3500 feet.  While the presence of CBM in Louisiana has been known for some time, only recently has the technology to economically develop the CBM play been developed.  CBM is currently being produced in several states including Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. 

The early attempts to produce CBM in other states required a multitude of wells spaced closely together (some on 10-acre spacing) to pump saltwater from the coalbed as the saltwater must be removed (typical saltwater production is 50 to 500 barrels per day per well) to allow the gas to escape.  Each of the CBM wells produce only 20,000 to 30,000 cubic feet/day (compared to typical Cotton Valley 4 million cubic feet/day or Haynesville Shale 12 million cubic feet/day) and have a considerable footprint when you add up the surface area loss from the well site, road, pipelines and power lines needed to operate dewatering pumps. 

On a 10-acre well spacing scenario a landowner could lose 25 to 40 percent of their surface area to wells, pipelines etc. and the remaining acreage could be so encumbered as to make it inoperable for logging or farming.

Additionally, the fact that the shallow vertical CBM wells cost much less to drill than the deeper plays allowed some undercapitalized operators into the business who could afford to drill and operate the wells but had no money to pay for damages, protect the land from erosion, or to cleanup any mishaps.  Most prudent operators today are using directional drilling technologies where one well can take the place of many vertical wells thereby reducing their costs and the footprint of their operations.

In Louisiana, the regulations regarding development of CBM is one-page long and says in essence that all rules and regulations concerning CBM are left to the discretion of the Commissioner of Conservation.  So far the Commissioner has granted at least ten CBM units in northeast Louisiana, each approaching 5000 acres in size and allowing the operators to drill as many wells as they want, as close together as they want.

This could have a devastating affect on the forestry and farming interests within these units and could be particularly damaging to surface owners who do not own the minerals under their property and to landowners who do own the minerals but whose minerals are subject to an existing lease which does not contain language specifying minimum well spacing requirements.  I am sure there will be legal questions as to whether some existing leases cover CBM.  The development of this resource play seems to have outrun the rulemaking process.

Recently groups including the Louisiana Forestry Association and Farm Bureau have been meeting with associations representing the oil and gas industry to develop some common sense rules for CBM development.  Issues being considered include:

• Notice to landowner/surface owner and requirement to develop a plan of operations with landowner/surface owner.
• Bonding and damage/liability requirements.
• Establish well spacing requirements for vertical and horizontal wells.
• Protection of water resources, both surface waters and aquifers.
• Best management practices.
• Reclamation and cleanup of sites.

Forest landowners need to maximize their investments but a few safeguards will make this new production good for both sides of the business.

(Steve Gleason is a forester with Professional Timberland Management.)

Biomass Crop Assistance Program and renewable energy

By C.A. “Buck” Vandersteen

The 2008 Farm Bill (the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008) created the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) and authorized the Farm Service Agency to implement the program nationwide.

BCAP is intended to assist agricultural and forest landowners and operators with the establishment and production of woody biomass and other eligible crops for conversion to bio-energy. It also creates financial incentives for loggers and producers that collect, harvest, store, and transport eligible material for use in a biomass conversion facility.

The program is good for loggers by adding productivity to their operations and for landowners that will have a much cleaner site for reforestation when the logging is finished.

The program fits very well with traditional forest products industry that burn wood residue for heat and power. Numerous forest products companies have qualified for official biomass conversion facilities and are working closely with loggers to meet the program objectives.

The BCAP program matches dollar-for-dollar up to $45 per dry ton equivalent of wood biomass delivered to the mill. The logger’s delivery records are presented to the Farm Service Agency where the logger is paid for his production. The mills get more renewable fuels to reduce even further their dependence on oil and fossil fuels and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The BCAP program is intended to give an incentive for previously unused woody material for the production of bio-energy. Unfortunately, some residue currently being sold to higher-valued wood products manufacturers is being directed to bio-energy conversion facilities.

The mill or producer can get higher prices from the government incentive by sending their material to a bio-energy conversion facility. This causes the price of wood to rise to those not eligible for the incentive. This disfavors traditional wood products.

This inequity is currently being addressed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in new rules that are under public review.

During the USDA public review of its revised BCAP rules, all existing contracts are in full effect. There is a temporary suspension for entering into any new BCAP contracts until the new rules are finalized in early April 2010. All payments to qualified producers of biomass currently in the BCAP program will be honored.

Forest landowners can benefit from the BCAP program in a couple of ways. The first is to include in their cutting contracts a price for wood residues that will qualify under the BCAP program. Even a small stumpage price will increase the value of the harvest but more importantly, the removal of the residue should make it easier for the reforestation efforts to follow. 

Forest landowners can also benefit by qualifying as eligible material owners and have a contract to deliver material to a qualified biomass facility.

A landowner could receive up to 75 percent of the establishment cost of the eligible woody material and receive annual land rental payments determined by the FSA with an approved forest conservation plan. This could benefit the landowner getting started in forestry. The landowner is obligated to sell eligible material to the biomass facility at lease once during the 15-year contract period.

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program is a good program for all in the forest products industry, landowners, loggers, and manufacturers.

With a few changes in the rules to focus on wood currently not being used, the program can provide financial benefits to all and encourage more renewable energy from forest resource residues.