Funding for Eco Trip is provided in part by: Support for WYES is made possible by the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, dedicated to improving the quality of life in Saint Bernard Parish and implementing innovative strategies to creating lasting, positive change in the entire community.

Just five miles from downtown New Orleans, Saint Bernard Parish offers scenic waterways, rich history, coastal culture, and year round fishing.

Learn more at Visit Saint Bernard.com.

The Gustaf W. McIlhenny Foundation, dedicated to strengthening communities through conservation, education and health.

Supporting organizations that preserve traditional values and expand opportunity for all Americans, especially across the South.

And by the WYES Producers Circle.

A group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of WYES local productions.

I wouldn't go too far.

The greatest adventures aren't always the ones that take you the farthest.

They're the ones that change the way you see the world around you.

Adventures that connect you to history.

Let go.

Not salty enough.

Connect you to culture.

Yes, indeed.

Connect you to nature.

Where are the bathrooms?

You're in it.

Think of the things that Louisiana is famous for, theyre all tied in some way to our coast.

But those ties between community and coast are in danger.

The same water that shaped this way of life now threatens to wash it away.

We can't leave.

This is it.

I'm taking this journey because I want to understand not just what we're losing, but what we're fighting to protect.

This isn't just about saving land.

It's about celebrating a way of life and sharing that celebration.

Salut.

Get up.

[Music] Every night.

It's a fight, but we're running out of time.

Get in!

For centuries, sails harnessed the forces of nature to cross oceans and reach the mouth of the Mississippi.

Carrying people, cultures, and the beginnings of Louisiana and America.

Today we're following in their wake.

Before dawn, we board a Coast Guard boat and head downriver for a rendezvous with history.

The US Coast Guard Eagle.

That's our ride into the city.

A ride 250 years in the making.

And they're going to let me on board.

Odds are I'm walking the plank.

This is 2026 and a United States military vessel.

We no longer make people walk the plank.

As the inaugural host city for Sail 250, New Orleans welcomed a global gathering of tall ships celebrating American independence.

The Sail 250 planners were proud and glad to organize this, and include New Orleans because of its deep maritime history as a port of trade and all the things that New Orleans has done for America as the gateway into the Mississippi River.

The roots of America were founded on the commerce that moves through the Mississippi River every day.

From paddle wheelers to ocean vessels, The Mississippi River has witnessed the evolution of nautical transportation.

Today, it is the busiest shipping corridor in the world.

Like the river, the Eagle is still working nearly a century after she first took to sea.

We call it America's Tall Ship because it is the only operational military tall ship in the United States.

It serves as a training platform for cadets.

And here, on the decks of Eagle, we teach these Coast Guard cadets to get salty.

You're really learning how to how to navigate without all the modern conveniences.

And that to me, is what being salty means.

And we need officers who understand the maritime environment, who understand wind and waves and salt.

Your presence is requested on the bridge.

All right.

Forward.

Let's go.

Let's get rolling on this thing.

That's, that's backwards.

I guess I'm not salty enough.

I want to get salty.

Oh!

Come on.

You're doing it today.

Trust me.

We may get salty.

I mean, it's the river.

It's freshwater.

You may get wet today.

Salty knows best.

And as the commanding officer predicted, we got wet.

But no amount of rain was going to dampen this celebration.

Part of this ship's mission is to represent the Coast Guard and America's maritime heritage.

Right.

And along the way, we get to tell America's maritime story.

And so when we visit a port, that port pours out, and people are excited when we come to port.

This is part of our American heritage.

Where these ships found safe harbor.

Bernardo de Galvez stands watch over the Mississippi River, representing a part of history that's been hiding in plain sight, a story that helped shape Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in ways many of us never learned.

That story lives on through the Los Islenos Fiesta.

These people are celebrating their heritage, celebrating the origin of their culture.

It's very moving.

What also moves the festival goers is the folk music that isn't just preserving history.

Each year, musicians and dancers travel thousands of miles from the islands to Saint Bernard Parish, bringing the music and traditions of their homeland with them.

In order to hearken back to the origin of our heritage in Louisiana.

We have a folkloric group coming from one of the seven inhabited Canary Islands.

There is no better place to begin discovering this origin story than here at the Los Islenos museum and historic village, complete with historic houses and exhibits.

Which really helps to tell, I think, in a very direct way, the cultural heritage story of the Canary Islanders.

That story is best told by historian William de Marigny Hyland.

When Spain inherited Louisiana, when it received Louisiana from France, Spain found a colony in shambles.

So what did Spain do?

She did what she'd always done.

She embarked on a colonization program.

So about 3,000 Canary Islanders ultimately were recruited to come here.

They were settled in four locations along waterways.

And then it made this area defensible against the British.

But then look how they, that's amazing.

If I'm going to do this fiesta right, I should probably do it in traditional clothing.

We're in the attic.

We're trying to get me to go full Canary Islander.

Wait, wait.

Multiple various pairs of leg warmers.

Yes, honey, you got the leg warmers you always dreamed of.

I'm a maniac!

Oh, this little tiny hat.

It looks like it goes.

We've made it our own.

So I love it, I love.

This is so good.

The one thing is, it might be a little long.

It's okay.

We'll make it a bow.

Or I'm a little short.

Yes, indeed.

In full regalia, I look for approval from the Canary Islanders.

Fun is fun in every language.

[Singing] I did my best to complete the cultural exchange.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks.

In addition to the pageantry of the Canary Islands, Spanish recipes passed down through generations are being cooked and shared, keeping the flavors and family traditions very much alive.

How do I say?

Salut.

That's not the right language.

What's the right way?

Close enough.

But each year it's the music and dance that gives this fiesta a rhythm all its own.

[Singing] You can learn about the cultural history and evolution of the Canary Islands, simply through the different dances and the different music that they play.

You don't want to sit.

You want to join in.

Joining in is harder than it looks.

Between the intricate steps and heavy traditional attire, preserving history can be exhausting.

How do they do this all day?

It can also be big fun.

[Music] The fiesta celebrates more than Spanish heritage.

It's also the story of generations shaped by the richness of Louisiana.

When they came here, they came to a much better condition.

So the Canary Islanders came here and experienced the American dream.

Is that what you're saying?

Definitely.

But the Spanish didn't simply build communities here.

They also became part of one of America's least known Revolutionary War stories.

In the French Quarter at the Cabildo, an exhibit by the Louisiana State Museum tells the story of how Galvez drove the British from the Gulf Coast and helped in the fight for America's independence.

There's no question that Galvez was indeed a founding father of America, and what he did was the destruction of the British colonial presence on what is today the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Galvez himself was a little humbler.

Well, I think I helped in the cause of securing the Spanish Empire, which also was a part played by the Los Islenos as well.

What Galvez did was to amass a fantastic militia.

And I'm proud of that, that we created something special here that is, remains and sustains in Louisiana and in the security of Louisiana.

That same spirit is behind what is happening downriver.

Somehow, someway, the vestiges of this heritage would not be lost.

And so that's the reason for this museum complex, the reason for the festival.

But today, preserving that heritage brings a very different challenge.

As the Louisiana coast disappears, so does the land that helped shape this culture.

I would have to be a complete idiot not to be concerned about the future of all of this.

There's going to have to be some way for us to save this heritage.

Along the Gulf Coast, culture is something you live and quite often something you eat.

At Docville Farm in Violet, Louisiana, Cook Off for the Coast celebrates the food, culture and future of the coast.

And for me, a chance to face my fear of cooking.

I need, like, an apron or something, right?

That's solid.

Like a solid apron, that looks handmade.

It's nice.

Seriously, it's for the coast.

Yeah.

I'm sure going to get a PBS cooking show with this outfit.

Cook Off for the Coast is also a cooking competition, a detail Aloe Lee probably should have considered before making me part of a team.

So this is my take on sushi.

So I've seasoned the sushi rice as if it's a tomato like Creole based seasoning, like for jambalaya.

And then I'm rolling in it some fried Gulf shrimp and some hot sauce and some avocado.

And yeah, this is pure Louisiana right here.

Oh, yeah.

This is home cook all the way.

You got it.

Oh, wait.

You did that way better than me.

Did I?

Yeah.

I love Cook Off for the Coast, one because I just really enjoy cooking wild game specifically.

But Cook Off for the Coast is highlighting our wetlands in ways that you don't see a lot of.

It's focused on the wetland landscape, and it raises money for restoration.

So it's not about the trophy.

There's nothing to do about the trophy.

Okay, a little, but honestly, it's a little bit about the trophy and a lot about the fact that I just love cooking weird stuff.

If it swims, flies or crawls, it can be plated and judged.

There's also a student and People's Choice Award, but every dish tells a bigger story about a coast that has shaped the way of people who call it home live.

I'm obsessed with the coast.

I came here with the intention of, you know, finding my footing, building on some skills and increasing my botanical knowledge.

And I've come to just love every little nitpicky thing you can love about Louisiana.

I'm really happy to call it home.

And here, home is where the stomach is.

We're doing wild home tacos, locally caught, hunted, cleaned everything 100% Louisiana.

This is crawfish bisque.

So this is gonna have crawfish, corn, little heavy cream.

What do you think?

I think if America could taste our food all the time.

Yeah, maybe protecting the heck out of it, they would absolutely be down here.

Support us 110 percent.

They have no idea what this ecosystem brings to the table.

It brings good stuff to the table.

All right.

Best thing you've ever had in your mouth.

It is.

Really?

Nice.

Really good.

As for that trophy, we didn't win.

But for judge and Louisiana sportsman legend Don Dubuc, there is an ingredient that every recipe needs.

What the world needs more of is Louisiana.

And because we have fun, we've got a great food, we've got music, we've got culture.

And that's the combo platter that makes Cookoff for the Coast the true winner, because it's going to help save the coast through both a fundraising and also an educational and awareness program.

That is number one.

Number two, it's the culture.

It's us.

It's what we are here in Louisiana.

It's part of us.

We're part of it.

And it needs to be saved.

How does our friend and master naturalist Aloe Lee get away from it all?

Are those juvenile white ibis?

Oh look at that!

It takes you out of the hustle and bustle of life.

But it is just so nice to just go out and look at a bird.

And I think a lot of people are resonating with that because it's time to slow down and, and focus on some other things.

It's a male, so that's good.

And no one really thinks of birds when they think of New Orleans, but they think of birds when they think of Louisiana.

And this habitat is great because you can get that New Orleans feel just 10 or 15 minutes away.

But then you step out here into this ecosystem and it's a completely different energy.

And getting us there is Captain Jason Pip Pippenger, whose Beyond the French Quarter tours are designed to show visitors the Louisiana most tourists never see.

Might be able to pick up a couple more species here and more on the songbird side, because it is a hard ridge.

If somebody is looking to come to New Orleans and they want to experience a true Louisiana experience, and it's only eight miles from Bourbon Street.

And these are a little less purple.

Like for self-proclaimed bird nerds, there's always a holy grail.

We call them life, birds or our lifers.

It's like we see it in our lifetime.

A lot of those species for a lot of people are here in our wetlands.

But also it's just satisfying to be like, wow, I've waited years to see this bird.

What is that right there on top, perched up on that?

Is it really?

Okay.

My goal is that people come first often, maybe looking for that lifetime species, but then also to have an encompassing understanding of the different types of coastal restoration efforts that we're doing here in close proximity to New Orleans, and how that not only protects communities in and around New Orleans, but it also helps these migratory birds when they're in their spring migration coming across the Gulf of Mexico.

This is the first spot that they stop at as our land, our coastline, erodes, it reduces the amount of food that they have to refuel to continue their migration further north.

Along for the ride, a group of retired environmental educators who came south already knowing their birds.

Being from Pennsylvania, we wanted to experience a new, new habitat, new places, and to see the delta and the estuary, you know, just was just beautiful, more than we expected honestly.

Yeah, it was more than we expected.

Birds but we also got the the heritage and the history and little bit of culture, wildlife, some laughs and some laughs too.

We had some good laughs.

You have not noticed that I've been driving the boat.

No matter who is driving, beyond the French Quarter and around every bend, there is always something more to explore.

People come to New Orleans for one experience and they leave falling in love with a different experience.

Louisiana has a big problem.

We are experiencing some of the fastest rates of land loss anywhere on the planet, and that jeopardizes our future.

And that, in turn, is threatening the Louisiana culture.

There are some big ideas about how to deal with that threat.

This starts small.

A plant, a pair of hands, and enough people willing to get dirty with the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

And in 2000, we created our Native Plants program.

And since then weve planted 1.2 million plants.

So exciting for us this week.

And that is what you're here helping us with today.

The job sounds pretty simple.

We're planting marsh grass, so basically it's going to be really squishy over there.

Maximum muck in the goo.

You're just kind of like feeling around for the vibe of planting something.

We leave CRCL restoration headquarters and head into the central wetland between Saint Bernard Parish and New Orleans, where a once thriving freshwater swamp is slowly being brought back to life.

It's time to get squishy.

The waters great.

The waters great.

Come on in.

Do the stanky leg, come on now.

Oh.

This would not get done without volunteers.

Any of the work that we do cannot happen without our community and without community involvement.

And that's really what I found to be the most surprising about this job for me is how much it really does matter.

But it's called the Cajun snowshoe.

You go around on your knees and so the weight is distributed all over your leg.

If you put your foot down, it's gone.

You can't get to put your foot back.

Planting isn't the problem.

The multiple ways to move in the marsh are.

The Cajun crawl.

Alligator crum.

Okay.

All right.

I get to go really fast.

Speed racer.

I guess I'm not thinking speed is something I'm going to be doing here.

Exposed to the weight.

Alligators are mocking me right now, dude, you just cannot walk.

Is this your first time in the bayou like this for me?

Yeah, yeah.

Whoa!

I lost my arm.

Can you tell?

I'm doing everything.

Out here everyone starts as a beginner, but somewhere between the maximum muck and the goo, you become part of something bigger.

That's what fills my cup every day.

That's what rejuvenates me and brings me back to it day in and day out.

Even though we see devastating land loss every single day, it's so beautiful to watch a middle schooler say, I think I have a green thumb because they worked in the nursery with us for a day or, you know, a high school, or ask if they could do this for the rest of their lives, or adults who have been there their whole lives, realize that they are coastal as well, and that they belong here, just as the river belongs here.

And we're planting seeds of hope.

We're also planting bulrush to stabilize coastal soils and to reduce land loss.

So I dig it with my hand?

Yeah.

You can dig with your hand.

Just place it in there.

Or if it helps, and take your foot and just kind of shove it into the mud maker and little hole or tuck the grass in there.

Okay, how does that look for my first one?

That's beautiful.

That's great.

That's beautiful.

We're putting plants into the soil.

The very, very soft soil of Louisiana.

And they grow, right?

I think of it as like rebar, like a nature's rebar.

And, you know, their roots are expanding underground, and it helps to anchor that soil into place.

Being anchored is a good thing.

I meant to do that.

Yeah.

I'm okay.

Lean into it.

My foots stuck.

Getting wet and dirty is more than planting.

CRCL is also trying to grow something else out here.

That's the difference between hearing about coastal land loss and standing in the middle of it.

It's not just something that's happening, it's something that you get to be a part of by volunteering and then telling your mother, tell your aunt, tell your neighbor, tell your friends, your teachers, your classmates about what you learned and how it made you feel and what you saw.

Because that's what changes people's minds.

That's what you remember is a story.

And down here, the story becomes personal.

You're not watching coastal restoration any more.

You're part of it.

Are you hopeful?

Excuse me?

I am, funnily enough, every day it's, it's hard.

My family's been here a long time, but something that I didn't expect about this is that the people give me hope.

And I happen to get pretty emotional about it.

Because you can, you can feel it.

If you open yourself up to feel it, you can feel it.

And it hurts a lot.

And it hurts a lot when a kid comes to you and says, like, well, what's the point?

Why do we stay here?

Why don't we leave?

It's like, but don't you feel it?

Like when you walk down the street in New Orleans, when you talk to people that you love.

You go to a family reunion, you eat food from down here.

You listen to music from down here, you sit on the river.

Don't you feel it?

We can't leave.

This is it.

One plant isn't going to restore Louisiana's coast.

Neither is one volunteer.

But put enough of them together and something starts to change.

Not only the wetlands, but the people who came out to help save it.

Funding for Eco Trip is provided in part by: Support for WYES is made possible by the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, dedicated to improving the quality of life in Saint Bernard Parish and implementing innovative strategies to creating lasting, positive change in the entire community.

Just five miles from downtown New Orleans, Saint Bernard Parish offers scenic waterways, rich history, coastal culture, and year round fishing.

Learn more at Visit Saint Bernard.com.

The Gustaf W. McIlhenny Foundation, dedicated to strengthening communities through conservation, education and health.

Supporting organizations that preserve traditional values and expand opportunity for all Americans, especially across the South.

And by the WYES Producers Circle, a group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of WYES local productions.