Bluebonnet Swamp

• By LAURA LARKIN
• Special to FUN
• Published: Jun 5, 2009

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“I’ve found a way to play with kids in the woods for a living,” laughed Claire Coco, director of BREC’s Bluebonnet Swamp and Nature Center. “What could be better than that?”

Baton Rouge has been lucky enough to have this untamed sanctuary around for 12 years now. The center just celebrated its anniversary.

“We’re very different from other attractions,” said Coco. “It’s a wild area. Animals aren’t behind cages like in a zoo. They’re up close. It can help dispel rumors about nature’s scariest animals and plants, like snakes and poison ivy. It’s a 101-acre outdoor classroom.”

Nature abounds even in Coco’s office. Fish tranquilly swim in a large tank on one wall, while a colorful painting of armadillos hangs nearby.

Visitors used to the flattened kind might just enjoy seeing an un-squished armadillo in the nearly two miles of walking trails. On any given day there are alligators, turtles, snakes, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, owls, hawks, herons, warblers, and other animals making their homes there. In the midst of a city like Baton Rouge, it’s a surprise and a real treat for all ages.

The foliage is also remarkable. Coco described the three types of forest represented: cypress tupelo, mixed hardwood, and beech magnolia, which is very uncommon in an urban area and takes hundreds of years to reach the stage represented at Bluebonnet Swamp.

Part of the hardwood forest sustained damage in Hurricane Gustav. “The oldest part, including 6-foot-diameter oaks, got wiped out,” Coco said. “The trail there had previously been dark and secluded with overhanging branches, but suddenly there was no canopy anymore.

“It’s our policy to leave the fallen trees on the ground to not take the nutrients off the site. It took us until last month to get that trail open again, and we anticipate an opening event for the trail early next year with before and after photographs and woodworking made with small amounts of wood from the fallen oaks.”

To help visitors learn about the animals and plant life found in the swamp, the center offers a wide variety of education programs including exhibits, tours, hikes, and summer and holiday camps for toddlers to teens. The camps are so popular that Coco recommends signing up as soon as possible, because they sometimes sell out within a day.

The staff, knowledgeable in subjects from forestry to entomology, is also frequently called upon to answer questions from the public about nature and the outdoors.

One of the most common questions they hear is the ever popular, “What kind of snake is this?”

In some cases, this question can be more serious than the questioner realizes.

Coco recalled a local woman calling about a snake her young son had found in their yard in an urban Baton Rouge neighborhood. The boy had played with the snake all day, but neither he nor the mother knew what type it was. They brought it to the center in a bucket, and to the mother’s shock, Coco recognized it as a copperhead.