CLS Wildlife and Waterfowl Heritage

DOCUMENTING LOUISIANA'S WETLANDS, WATERFOWL, AND OTHER OUTDOOR TRADITIONS

Louisiana’s wildlife and waterfowl traditions are part of a larger cultural landscape shaped by wetlands, waterways, hunting camps, fishing communities, conservation work, family knowledge, craft traditions, storytelling, foodways, and life on the land and water.

The Center for Louisiana Studies has long helped preserve and share this heritage through archival collections, publications, research, and public programming. Important collections such as the Greg Guirard Collection, along with publications such as Great Game Paradise: A History of Vermilion Corporation, provide a strong foundation for this work.

The current initiative around wildlife and waterfowl heritage brings these efforts together under a more focused framework, strengthening the Center’s ability to document, preserve, publish, exhibit, and share Louisiana’s wildlife, wetland, waterfowl, hunting, fishing, and outdoor heritage.

Our Work 

Archival Collections and Preservation

CLS is working to identify, preserve, and make accessible important collections related to Louisiana wildlife and waterlife heritage. This includes ongoing work with significant existing collections, such as the Greg Guirard Collection, as well as future efforts to preserve photographs, films, oral histories, papers, objects, and other materials connected to hunting, fishing, conservation, wetland life, and environmental memory.

A key goal is to help aggregate the many unprocessed or at-risk collections currently held by private individuals, families, organizations, businesses, and institutional offices. By bringing these scattered records, images, stories, and artifacts into archival care, the Center can help preserve them for future research, teaching, and public use.

Publications and Research

Through UL Press and related Center initiatives, CLS has already helped bring important stories of Louisiana wildlife and wetland heritage to readers. Publications are the result of careful historical research, strong storytelling, and public-facing scholarship.

This initiative will support future books, essays, field-based research, and accessible public writing on Louisiana wetlands, wildlife, waterfowl, hunting, fishing, conservation, and outdoor culture.

Oral History and Field Documentation

Many of Louisiana’s outdoor traditions live in memory, practice, and place. CLS seeks to expand fieldwork that records the knowledge of hunters, fishers, guides, conservationists, landowners, artists, cooks, boatbuilders, call makers, camp owners, and other tradition-bearers whose experiences help tell the story of Louisiana’s wetlands and waterways.

Exhibitions, Material Culture, and Public Programming

The Center is exploring new ways to share wildlife and waterfowl heritage through exhibitions, public programs, classroom engagement, and material culture collections. Objects such as duck calls, decoys, boats, tools, photographs, hunting and fishing gear, and related artifacts can help tell powerful stories about work, craft, recreation, conservation, and intergenerational knowledge.

Student Research and Training

This initiative creates opportunities for UL Lafayette students to participate in hands-on cultural work, including scanning, metadata creation, oral history support, transcription, archival processing, exhibit preparation, research, and public programming.

In doing so, the Center helps train the next generation of cultural stewards while expanding access to Louisiana’s documentary and cultural record.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILED WORK PLAN

Why It Matters

Louisiana’s wetlands are not only ecological spaces. They are cultural landscapes shaped by memory, labor, creativity, family, food, recreation, conservation, and survival.

By bringing together archival preservation, field documentation, publishing, exhibitions, and public programming, CLS can strengthen work already underway, preserve endangered materials, honor tradition-bearers, produce new scholarship, and expand public understanding of Louisiana’s water-centered heritage.

Support This Work

Gifts to the Center for Louisiana Studies Wildlife and Waterfowl Heritage Fund provide flexible support for this growing area of work.

New Fund #03101 - Center for Louisiana Studies Wildlife and Waterfowl Heritage Fund

The purpose of the fund is to provide flexible funds in support of the Center for Louisiana Studies’ work documenting, preserving, and sharing Louisiana’s wildlife, wetland, waterfowl, hunting, fishing, and outdoor heritage, including but not limited to archival collections, fieldwork, publications, exhibitions, student research, and public programming.

Your support helps the Center preserve fragile collections, document living traditions, support students, create public programs, and ensure that Louisiana’s wildlife and waterfowl heritage remains accessible for future generations.

For More Information

For more information about CLS's wildlife and waterfowl heritage initiatives, or to discuss ways to support this work, please contact:

Dr. Joshua Caffery
Director, Center for Louisiana Studies
josh.caffery@louisiana.edu 

 

PHASED WORK PLAN

1. Opening Day

Immediate, shovel-ready work

• Publication projects
  • Ready-to-launch books and booklets.
  • Professional writer / fieldwork consultant
  • Interviews, research, manuscript development, and interpretive writing.
• Undergraduate student worker support
  • Ongoing student help with scanning, metadata, inventories, finding aids, and program support.
• Collection transfer and processing
  • Site visits, packing, shipping, legal review, basic processing, and access preparation.

2. In the Blind

Sustained program-building

• Field documentation and expanded fieldwork
  • Travel, transcription, honoraria, photography, and documentation of communities, camps, guides, artists, conservationists, and tradition bearers.
• Digitization, preservation, and storage capacity
  • Equipment, storage, archival supplies, and preservation tools.
• Public access, programming, and follow-on publications
  • Digital exhibits, web features, public programs, speaker honoraria, promotional materials, and interpretive publications.

3. The Flyway

Transformational, long-term vision

• Wildlife and Waterfowl Heritage Collection
  • A dedicated university-managed physical collection focused on Louisiana wildlife, wetlands, waterfowl, and material culture.
• Coast-wide field documentation and collecting initiative
   
• Public digital portal, exhibitions, and educational programming
  • A public-facing platform, exhibitions, symposia, school programs, traveling panels, publications, and outreach.
• Major collection processing and digitization
  • Full processing and digitization of major collections, including the Greg Guirard Collection.