A reserve Louisiana can paddle through
The Louisiana Nature Kayak Reserve is a proposal to create three connected nature reserves, owned by a nonprofit land trust with a conservation easement, with free public admission, native species, trails, and public access — funded by companies as an environmental offset and sponsorship, instead of each company doing its own small offsets.
It is a proposal seeking sponsors. No sponsor has signed on yet, and no land has been bought. The next step is a 90-day feasibility study — and the sponsors who make that study happen.
Why one corridor, not three separate projects? Pooling funding buys more wetland per dollar, one trust with one easement means one accountable owner, and a large connected swamp works ecologically in a way scattered parcels cannot. Paddlers get a trail; Louisiana gets a corridor.
North, middle, and south — one trust
North
North Reserve
Richland Parish. Boeuf River hardwood bayous and oxbow sloughs, near Meta Hyperion. Historic waters next to frontier computing.
Middle
Middle Reserve
Atchafalaya Basin / Bayou Teche country. North America’s largest river swamp — the midpoint resupply sanctuary of the whole corridor.
South
South Reserve
Pecan Island / Vermilion Coast. Tidal chenier estuaries meeting aerospace development on the Gulf horizon.
Paddle from one reserve to the next
Most paddlers will enjoy 2–6 hour passport loops at a single reserve. For the ambitious, the Louisiana Thru-Paddle links all three — Leg 1 down the Boeuf/Tensas side channels to the middle, Leg 2 down Bayou Teche to the coast. Bayou Teche is Louisiana’s only National Water Trail, with 15 official docks.
Targets, not promises — to be validated in the feasibility study
All figures on this site are targets and plans for the proposed reserve, to be validated in the 90-day feasibility study. No sponsor has signed on yet.
Read the full deck
The 12-page pitch deck lays out the three reserves, the trail, and the sponsorship tiers. Sponsorship is open — one sponsor may fund the whole corridor. No sponsor has signed on yet.
Help build America’s most unique waterway reserve
We are looking for sponsors, land-trust partners, outfitters, and local communities along the corridor. Start with an email — tell us who you are and how you’d like to be part of it.