Wetland passion leads to commercial opportunities

Employee preferred benefits shift with season
June 12, 2012
Nicholls’ Delatte drafted by the Blue Jays in the fifth round of MLB Draft
June 12, 2012
Employee preferred benefits shift with season
June 12, 2012
Nicholls’ Delatte drafted by the Blue Jays in the fifth round of MLB Draft
June 12, 2012

Wendy Wilson Billiot is a native of Boisser City who moved to Thibodaux in 1978 with a degree in office administration. She began work in the oil fields, but during the course of three decades became educated in the wetlands and passionate about losses and restoration of coastal Louisiana.


“I worked on crew boats while with the oil industry, and it gave me the sea-time to get a captain’s license,” Billiot said. “So, in 2004, I got a captain’s license so I could begin Wetland Tours.”


The emerging bayou woman married Russell Billiot and became a stay-at-home mom. During the past 31 years she shared her family time with learning about the land, water, wildlife and people. Once the couple’s daughter and four sons were growing into and toward adulthood, Wendy Billiot’s passion had swelled to the point that she knew she was ready to launch into multiple venues with a focus on the wetlands.

“I had a feeling that people were going to want to learn about this area,” Billiot said of lower Terrebonne Parish. “So, what I offer is an educational eco-tour. That is the main reason I started that business.”


Unlike entertainment swamp tours that offer expected canal and bayou sights, traditional stories, group songs and feeding of the alligators, Billiot has become known for taking scientists, documentary film crews, travel writers, magazine photographers and people with a curiosity about learning how the lands are being lost to the sea.


In Capt. Wendy’s boat there is an opportunity to see a side of the swamps and marshlands that otherwise might be missed. Her tours cost $50 per person with a minimum of four participants.

In 2004 Billiot wrote and self-published the children’s book “Before the Saltwater Came.” From there she realized she had an opportunity to transfer her skills and interest in restoring the wetlands into both an educational and commercial venture.


Laying the foundation for her commercial plans, Billiot officially launched the Wetland Tour and Guide Service in 2007. “The reason I added the phrase guide service is that it would allow me to branch out into fishing charters.”


In 2008, Billiot bought an 80-year-old cypress house that had been damaged by storms. After elevating and renovating the structure it became Camp Dularge, which opened for business in 2009.

As a fishing camp rental Camp Dularge is suitable for families, corporate use or groups of fishermen wanting a place to stay at night. The two bedroom structure sleeps up to eight people, a sizable kitchen, large living room and entertainment-sized deck makes the most of a comfortable atmosphere. Since it is elevated, boat parking under the structure as well as a fish cleaning station and encouraged exterior cooking is offered.


Billiot said while men are welcome to take advantage of saltwater and freshwater angling, her design is to offer a tour aimed at teaching women and children to fish.

“There are so many wonderful guides and fishing charters down here, and they are at it five days a week,” Billiot said, explaining that boat is launched by reservation only. “I send them customers and they send people interested in a more detailed look at the wetlands to me, but people from all over the world seem to find me, way down here.”

Also a freelance writer and photographer, Billiot has multiple active websites, a blog and hosts a monthly radio program as part of her Wetlands Media, with a focused on coastal issues. “This has become an opportunity to educate people all over the world about our way of life,” she said. She had used the Internet to document Hurricane Gustav in 2008, from preparation, to evacuation and restoration.

“One of the reasons I wrote ‘Before the Saltwater Came’ was because there were no wetland education materials in our public schools,” she said. “Under a grant I visited every third grade class in Lafourche Parish and presented this book. I did a wetland presentation and developed a guide for educators.”

Billiot’s latest venture, being launched this summer, is to take in groups of women to stay at Camp Dularge, take wetland tours and learn fishing and outdoor skills. Listed as Bayou Women Adventure this project takes a weekend – the first is June 22-24 – to provide an opportunity participants may never have otherwise. In the future could include shrimping and oyster harvesting. The weekend will also feature one meal at a local restaurant and presented works of a local artisan to further promote what the region has to offer.

“When I went to work on the crew boat and I saw everything between the dock and the Gulf of Mexico, I fell in love with the people and the area. Once I came to work down here I wanted to stay,” she said. “Now I want to introduce it to others.”

As the Bayou Woman, Billiot said her greatest concern is that the population that lives closest to the Louisiana coast tends to have the least appreciation for what they have and what they stand to lose.

She is an environmentalist, not only for wildlife and marshlands, but for the area’s people, culture and way of life. Louisiana is a working wetland with trades and skills that would not be transferrable to other parts of the nation, she explained. In turn she wants to inform the nation of this region’s importance.

“It is essential that we get the message out to everyone we can,” Billiot said. “These are Louisiana’s wetlands, but we serve the nation. The wetland loss we incur here is a national problem because of what we give the nation in the form of oil production, major ports that we have and seafood that we offer.”

Outside her Camp Dularge property that she rents to tourists, Wendy Wilson Billiot has built a business that includes educational water tours, writing, photography and charter fishing.

MIKE NIXON | TRI-PARISH TIMES