St. Martin Parish Wins Grant for Paddler’s Guide

Bayou Junction

St. Martin Parish Tourism has been selected as a recipient of an Atchafalaya Wild Grant, part of a special initiative marking the twentieth anniversary of the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area. The program supports projects that promote conservation, outdoor recreation, and deeper public engagement with one of Louisiana’s most vital landscapes. The recognition places St. Martin Parish among a select group of six recipients chosen to help commemorate this milestone year. The honor was conveyed this week in a letter from Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.

The proposed project centers on creating a paddler’s guide for St. Martin Parish, highlighting especially lesser-known waterways. Building on prior work documenting paddle routes and public access points, the initiative aims to further develop a comprehensive and user-friendly print and digital guide to exploring the parish by paddlecraft.

With ten public boat launches and year-round access to waterways such as Bayou Teche, Lake Dauterive, Henderson Lake, Lake Martin, Catahoula Lake, Lake Fausse Pointe, and the greater Atchafalaya Basin, St. Martin Parish offers incredibly diverse opportunities for paddlers, fishermen, birdwatchers, photographers and nature enthusiasts. The grant will help refine and expand resources that make these experiences more accessible, whether for residents rediscovering their backyard or visitors encountering the parish by water for the first time.

“The history of St. Martin Parish is inseparable from the history of its waterways,” said Jude Theriot, Nature & Culture Correspondent for St. Martin Parish Tourism and author of the forthcoming paddler’s guide. “Just in terms of sheer beauty I would hold our paddling trails up against any in the country, but they’re more than scenic, they’re the arteries of our history and our culture. Our communities were organized around water, and our cuisine and culture grew directly out of that water. When you experience the parish at water level, you can really feel that history.”

In addition to promoting recreation, the project aligns with broader conservation goals by encouraging thoughtful, low-impact use of natural spaces. By guiding visitors toward established routes and access points, it supports stewardship of sensitive habitats while fostering a deeper appreciation for the Basin’s ecological complexity. “When you get out on the water, and you’re so close to the water that you can reach out and touch it,” Theriot said, “you connect with this place in a deeper way.”