Forged by the fire of the frontlines, L'eau Est La Vie Camp lives on...

Three years ago an epic, native-led battle to protect the swamps and waters of South Louisiana was waged against ETP's Bayou Bridge Pipeline. Although ultimately the pipeline - the tail end of the Dakota Access Pipeline, was completed, the spirit of resistance has certainly prevailed.

In the time since the No Bayou Bridge campaign ended, we have been hard at work continuing the legacy of L'eau Est La Vie, or 'Water is Life.' We believe that the necessary avenues to climate and environmental justice lies along two distinct avenues - mitigation and adaptation. That's why we have devoted our time to both, dismantling existing parasitic systems and corporations while also building the future we wish to see in the world.

Your donation will help support:
Climate-related Disaster Mutual Aid Efforts
Ndn Bayou Food Forest Food Sovereignty Project
Movement Training Network
Frontline Direct Action Support Across the Nation
The Development of a National Campaign Around the Intersection of Climate and Militarism
Existing Court Cases that are Challenging ALEC-inspired Anti-protest Laws

Any amount helps, please never think of your contribution as small. Every sacrifice we make toward a better world enriches the lives of every living thing upon it. YOU ARE THE CHANGE THIS PLANET NEEDS, please don't forget that.

Thank you, for your support!

Cherri Foytlin
L'eau Est La Vie Camp
Ndn Bayou Food Forest
Movement Training Network

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Your Donation Will Directly Support:

Climate-related Disaster Mutual Aid Efforts

For many organizations that solely focus on disaster relief, and although most participating individuals are often deeply committed, at the end of the day - It's their job.

For us, it is our survival.

Living and working in South Louisiana comes with many perks (i.e. the food!), but also a few downsides. One of those downsides is hurricanes and other climate-fueled storms.

This year the Gulf of Mexico hosted 21 named storms - making 2021 the third most active year on record. Back in August, as we were continuing to help our neighbors just to our West in Lake Charles, LA, from the havoc of Laura and Delta, our neighbors to the East were slammed by Hurricane Ida.

Through our vast network of community partners, volunteers at Ndn Bayou Food Forest were able to provide fresh, organic produce, a safe space for disaster workers, transport of emergency supplies, direction for outside and local donations, as well as to labor to remove fallen trees and place tarps for temporary roofing needs, to the most affected and historically-underserved communities.

Additionally, we know that part of climate disaster response is discovering and investing in adaptation. That's why we have provided dozens of fruit tree saplings to individual's yards, school properties, and local public spaces. Using traditional native and naturally-aligned planting techniques, we are also increasingly testing new and/or previously used medicinal and food plant species that may grow more effectively in this changing world.

Our hope is to pollinate the future, and promote food sovereignty, by actively engaging in thoughtful and resilient rebuilding efforts.

Please consider donating generously in order to help us all take GIANT STEPS TOWARD a just transition and direct support for our South Louisiana communities impacted by climate disasters.

Ndn Bayou Food Forest -
A Food Sovereignty Project

If you search up pro-oil or right-wing conversations around the now-operational Bayou Bridge Pipeline, they have easily spun the effects of the intense struggle to stop the pipeline as one of failure. In short, we were not able to stop ETP's slimy snake from winding its way through precious swamplands. For them, that's all they see. For them, the ultimate financial success of the pipeline is all that matters.

The thing is, we don't see that campaign as a loss. Not only was it the beginning and deepening of life-long relationships, and a spark for continuing resistance in Louisiana and beyond, but there was an amazing win by keeping Bayou Bridge from destroying the land where the LELV Camp was located.

That 11 acres in Indian Bayou, Louisiana, is by far one of the proudest projects we have created to date.

We call it Ndn Bayou Food Forest.

"We want to make food free. That means diversifying local production - a field that once grew only sugarcane for fuel ethanol now grows avocados, sweet potatoes, mulberries, bananas, beans, kale, figs, catfish, okra, watermelon, squash, turmeric, basil, broccoli, cabbage, collards, and more.

(Ndn Bayou Food Forest's) strategy is to amplify our impact by producing and distributing not just food or medicine harvests, but the food and medicine plants themselves, thereby seeding not just one food forest but dozens, eventually hundreds."

Through our local community partnerships, have given away thousands of sweet potato plants, as well as other valuable perennials such as elderberry, banana, sunchokes, turmeric, and many different annual crops.

Our hope is that soon these gifts will be able to be accompanied by public demonstrations and skill-shares.

The good news is that every year, we find ourselves with a bigger surplus of consumable crops as our food forest develops and our soil improves. In 2022, "we expect to give away many more pounds of greens, beans, squash, figs, avocados, bananas, plantains, watermelon, okra, citrus, and more."

Please consider donating to GIANT STEPS TOWARD a JUST TRANSITION, your donation will directly support this land-based, native-led, environmental and climate justice-committed, food sovereignty project.

Giant Steps Toward a Just Transition, by L'eau Est La Vie

Help Build the Future By Giving in the Present!

Team Members