Nature’s Year-long Exhibit

by Hilary Creamer

Northlake Nature Center

COVERING 400 ACRES and nestled to the east of Bayou Castine, the Northlake Nature Center continues to grow and change, much like the natural habitat it preserves. This hidden gem offers a variety of intertwining trails showcasing nature’s splendor from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year. It’s a great place to visit with friends.

Even when you hike here alone for tranquility and solitude, you can’t help but feel a sense of community in this place. That is because the beautification, event programs and maintenance of the center is completely volunteer driven. Nature enthusiasts and volunteers spruce up and clear the trails of obstructions during the reoccurring event “Nature Walk and Titivation.” Structures and amenities, such as the gazebo, canoe launch, educational signs, special gardens, outlooks and benches, have all been lovingly added by volunteers and groups like the Boy and Girl Scouts.

Save the date! The Great Louisiana Bird Fest on April 8.

Even the beautiful irises, which will be in bloom beginning in late March, were planted by the Iris Society of New Orleans and are continually cultivated by volunteers of the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative. With more than 3,000 irises of at least five different varieties planted around ponds and swampy areas, you won’t want to miss this springtime spectacle.

With such a large variety of programs and events throughout the year, the Northlake Nature Center has something for everyone to get involved. There’s canoeing on the bayou, biking the back trails, moonlight hikes and marshmallow melts, a book club, “Storywalk” with the St. Tammany Parish Library, line dancing and yoga in the pavilion. Another spring event that is returning for 2022 is a mini-version of The Great Louisiana Bird Fest on April 8.

One could easily plan a hiking visit for each season using a different path each time. And nature will deliver you a different demonstration for each visit— new colors to see, new birdsongs to hear—and the light even seems different, depending on the season. The experience is a non-tangible gift that can have a lasting, positive impact on your mood. Executive Director Rue McNeill agrees: “Walking in the woods—getting outside—is one of the best things you can do for your body and mind. If you let the scenery absorb you completely, you will walk away with a peaceful mind and a feeling of relaxation like no other.”

Like much of our area, the center was impacted by Hurricane Ida. But here, unless they are obstructing a path, the fallen trees will stay where they fell. Once towering high providing shade, they now begin the transition back to the soil—each surface, nook and cranny providing new homes to different plants and wildlife. If we are open to learn, nature has a way of teaching us how to use adversity as opportunity.

The Northlake Nature Center extends to you an open invitation to nature’s year-long exhibit. Admission is free; as a non-profit organization, the programs, events, and mission of preservation and education are supported wholly by taxdeductible memberships, donations, private and public grants, and beloved volunteers. If you would like more information on becoming a member, a volunteer, or to register for an event, please contact Rue McNeill at rue@northlakenature.org or by calling 626-1238.

The Northlake Nature Center is located at 23135 Hwy. 190in Mandeville, 626-1238.