Living on Bayou Desiard

Living on Bayou Desiard

Bayou Desiard is the primary water source for the City of Monroe in Louisiana and is regulated by the city for drinking water and flood control. The bayou is also used for fishing, duck hunting, boating and water skiing. The ULM ski teamand the fishing team also uses the bayou. The bayou runs right through the campus of ULM making the scenery a beautiful sight. Cars can be seen crossing the bridge that crosses to the second half of the campus. Originally Bayou Desiard formed the lower end of a historical channel of the Arkansas River. Dense stands of bald cypress are located on the northern end of the bayou. They become less abundant and more scattered moving north to south. Cypress trees can get up to 120 feet tall with a trunk tree three to six feet in diameter. The floating vegetation most can see in the bayou are duckweed, water hyacinth and eichhomia crassipes. Around the bayou you can see all types of life. As I look towards one end of the bayou, I can see a crane staring in gaze at the scenery. Some mornings there are flocks of them flying through to an unknown destination. My whole time living here I have seen only two alligators in this bayou and my last encounter with one was at the edge of my deck like 5ft away from me. averaging 6ft long at least. There are people that’s out here on the bayou daily doing their regular fishing. Most of them catch bass, perch, and bream. All of us that live on the bayou have water pumps to use the water for watering our lawns or other purposes. The bayou is a beautiful sight and holds peaceful sounds that makes you want to just pull up a chair and just enjoy nature.