TURTLE COVE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH STATION

 

The Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station is a field research and university education and outreach program of Southeastern Louisiana University, with facilities located on two sites at Galva Canal in Manchac and on Pass Manchac in the Lake Pontchartrain estuarine ecosystem’s Manchac Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Turtle Cove consists of buildings and infrastructure, equipment and supplies, and a fleet of 12 boats of all sizes that are necessary to conduct activities in the Pontchartrain Basin, including a 40 foot pontoon boat that can carry groups of up to 30 people. Along with these resources, Turtle Cove staff help support a variety of interdisciplinary programs at Southeastern—and other universities around the region, primary among them biology, but also including chemistry/physics, education, history, and the arts, among others. Turtle Cove’s extensive university education and outreach programs are widely renowned across the region. The main guest house (i.e., “Turtle Cove”) on Pass Manchac was constructed in 1908 by Mr. Edward Schlieder, a businessman and outdoorsman in the logging industry from New Orleans. The estate was donated after his death to the State of Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) with whom Southeastern now leases the land and facilities from since 1981 via a 99-year lease. The mission of Turtle Cove is to facilitate a better understanding of the local wetland environments of Southeast Louisiana through research, university education, marsh restoration, teacher training, and public outreach. For more information on the station and its programs and activities, or to make a donation, please visit our website, www.southeastern.edu/turtlecove, or contact the manager at 985-549-5008.