When: April 16th-18th, 2010
Where: Downtown Historic Franklin, Louisiana

The Seventh Annual Bayou Teche Bear Festival will be on April 16th - 18th, 2010, in downtown Franklin on historic Bayou Teche. The city is surrounded by expansive cypress tupelo swamps, and the unique and expansive Atchafalaya Basin. The area has a rich natural heritage, with a bountiful list of species readily available for the wildlife fancier. Among those is the Louisiana black bear ( Ursus americanus luteolus ).

The mission of the Bear Festival is to provide education about the Louisiana black bear, a species listed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as "threatened" under the guidelines of the Endangered Species Act. The festival features all the activities associated with a typical Louisiana festival, music, food, and good company, but also includes field trips, educational exhibits and children's activities relating to bears and the many other natural resources found in south Louisiana.

One of the activities of interest to us is the paddling - Canoeing, Paddling through the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge

This event will feature three days of paddling along Bayou Teche and through the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge. Paddlers can choose the days they would like to join the group or paddle for all three days.  On Friday, April 16, the group will paddle from Baldwin down Bayou Teche to the site of the Black Bear Festival in Franklin. On this 12 mile trip you will see a historic plantation home built around 1830. This route will also take paddlers through the site of the Civil War Battle of Irish Bend.

On Saturday, April 17, paddlers will travel about ten miles through the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge, a 100 year old cypress logging canal and Bayou Portage. This trip will put in and take out at Fairfax Foster Bailey Landing.

On Sunday, April 18, paddlers will once again enter the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge to explore its bayous, canals and wildlife.

You MUST have your own boat to participate. Registration forms are available on their website -bayoutechebearfest.org

For more information, contact Donovan Garcia, Bayou Teche Refuge Paddle, P.O. Box 249 , Jeanerette , LA 70544 ; or call (337) 923-9718;send e-mail to needtopaddle@yahoo.com or visit their website - bayoutechebearfest.org