Early voting under way as Sheriff’s proposed tax draws debate
October 24, 2018
Rec meeting gives valuable information, only attended by a few
October 24, 2018
During the last day of Houma’s Rougarou Festival, a four-footed criminal was pardoned for high crimes against Terrebonne Parish’s ecosystem Sunday afternoon.
“Beignet,” a Terrebonne Parish nutria, was pardoned by Parish President Gordon Dove on the steps of the parish courthouse, before a cheerful crowd of attendees of the weekend celebration.
“He will be on probation but he won’t be allowed back in our marshes,” said Dove, with a smile.
Beignet’s pardoning was scheduled for Saturday, but due to bad weather, freedom was postponed. Laying on sawdust at the bottom of a metal cage, he chewed on a large carrot held between his two front paws in anticipation of the scheduled pardoning. It was one of many events scheduled as part of the Rougarou Festival, an annual celebration of the local region’s ecology and sometimes chilling folklore.
Nutria are large rodents considered an invasive species, that dine on marsh grass and make the region more susceptible to damage from hurricanes and high tides. Dove explained how the rodents eat the roots of local plants, and that this is the reason for a $6 bounty for their tails.
Jonathan Foret, executive director of the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center, which sponsors the festival, said Beignet’s mother was shot by a bounty-hunter and that Beignet was the only surviving child of the litter.
“We named him Beignet because he’s as sweet as powdered sugar,” Foret said.
The Discovery Center founded the Rougarou Festival seven years ago, one of two annual fundraisers. The other is the annual Rougarou Ball. The nonprofit organization’s mission is to educate the public about coastal erosion and adaptation strategies to cope with it.
The mythical Rougarou is a mythical Louisiana werewolf. Its name is a corrupted version of the French term “Loup Garou.”
While the myth and coastal erosion might not seem intertwined, Foret says otherwise.
“The wetlands are the Rougarou’s home, if we don’t protect them he won’t have a place to live,” said Foret. “The Rougarou is like Smokey the Bear for us.”
Assured that he would keep his tail, Beignet gazed at passing people. Some appeared scarier than a nutria could. While marsh-munching might label him a monster — ecologically at least — many attending the festival dressed up as actual monsters.
There were witches, a dancing banana duo, “Leatherface,” a horror-film creature, another creature walking on stilts and many versions of the the Rougarou as well. They and other festival-goers passed in and out of tents that served a variety of foods, including pork cracklings seafood, gumbo and jamabalya, to name a few.
Cooking fries in one of the tents was Christopher Pulaski, Zoning Administrator of Terrebonne Parish, he was a past president of the discovery center and has been a board member since 2009.
His tent ran sold out of “shoestring” fries and his sister was bringing them more. He described the festival as Foret’s brainchild, and while the discovery center is currently located in the Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum, the center is trying to get its own building.
The Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum is located on 7910 West Park Avenue.
Another tent collected the recyclable waste generated by the event. Melissa Duprey, of Houma was working this stand. She just graduated from Nicholls in Family and Consumer Sciences, and is working as an attendance clerk at Houma Jr. High which freed her up to volunteer one weekends.
Duprey had switched from a stand that was serving blackberry dumplings, but said she enjoyed this more because she could hear the bands better. The dumplings, she said, were from a local family’s recipe.
“The mother makes them, and she used to make them with her mother and grandmother at Lagniappe on the Bayou years ago,” said Duprey. “And it’s a family tradition, and now she teaches her daughters how to make them.”
Lagniappe on the Bayou is a once-beloved festival held at St. Joseph’s Church in Chauvin. A new version of the Lagniappe festival continues.
As the Rougarou Festival drew to a close Sunday, Beignet headed home with Foret, who keeps him as a pet. He will be a busy nutria, as a feature of educational programs held by the Wetlands Discovery Center.
Since part of his purpose will be to help explain how nutria damage the local environment, Beignet could in the future be designated a rat by others of his kind.
Houma – “Beignet” the nutria munches on a carrot and is held by Jonathon Foret as he is pardoned by Parish President Gordan Dove at the Rougarou Festival Saturday, on the steps of the parish courthouse.
