One mans dreams of living in the Amazon turns into a mission to protect
The earthen bridge across Bayou Duquense was built and then abandoned by Bayou Jack Logging Company, damming up Indian Bayou, is now the focus of an on-going lawsuit. The suit was filed by the basinkeepers of the Atchafalaya, also known as water-keepers. The group requested the removal of the bridge prior to filing. The logging company agreed to clean up their mess, but as one basinkeeper found out, the bridge is still there. His dream to live in the Amazon has become a mission to preserve the Atchafalaya Basin.
Dean Wilson was raised in Spain until coming to Louisiana to help fulfill his dream of living off the land in the Amazon. Now, he has made a permanent home here, to protect the Atchafalaya Basin.
"I wanted to get used to the heat and the mosquitoes and all that before I go to the Amazon," said Wilson. "I came to the swamps across the Gulf, below Franklin, where the black bear preserve is now. A land owner let me stay there, so I stay there for 4 months with a few hooks, a spear, a bow, a few arrows and I just live off the land."
While living primitively in the backwoods of Louisiana, Wilson fell in love with the swamp, becoming basinkeeper to preserve the swamps he loves.
"The first time I saw white eagles flying through the green, and the water all together you know, like I picture the Garden of Eden," said Wilson. "If I had to look somehow I could picture the Garden of Eden just like the Atchafalaya and the swamps."
He is fighting to improve federal enforcement of environmental laws. The lack of enforcement has allowed thousands of miles of oil pipes and equipment to be left rotting in the swamps.
"The dream for me would be the state and the federal government would take the job of protecting these wetlands," said Wilson. "The way they're supposed to protect their laws. They're asking for billion of dollars for the wetlands and protect coastal restoration, but it's that kind of behavior of damming canals and leaving things that brought us to where we are today."
Over the past year, Wilson says the basinkeepers, have successfully stopped all dredging and cypress logging, which is only one victory in their on-going battle.
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