Native Plant Advocate of the Month: Stephen Fournet

A native of Lafayette, Stephen has always led a life working out of doors; early on as a groundskeeper and worker at a local aquaculture farm. He was educated as a coastal and marine geologist, earning a B.S at UL Lafayette in ‘83 and M.S. at East Carolina University in ‘90. From 1989-1995, he worked at Coastal Environments, Inc. and for the USFW National Wetland Research Center in Lafayette, then later with Lafayette’s C Technologies, Inc. Later he worked as a consultant doing seafloor surveys for fiber optic telecommunication cables, pipeline routing, coring, and offshore wind farm turbines. He is a long-time member of the Lafayette Geological Society, Nature Conservancy, LPB, NPR and KRVS.

Stephen’s passion for plants is shared by his general love of most elements of the natural world. Since he can remember, his recreational time was always out of doors, often on the Fournet family property on the Lake Martin Rd. Here crawfish ponds are ideal habitat for a network of some 35 duck nest boxes that he maintains and monitors, along with others at Moncus Park and friend’s properties. These boxes are used by Hooded Mergansers, Black Bellied Tree Ducks, and Wood Ducks. An ongoing project since 2017, the data collected during the nesting season shows that on average over 550 duck chicks are hatched each year. Another 25 bluebird and small boxes are maintained at Moncus Park, and other locations. Stephen is presently in the Acadiana Master Naturalist certification program and active volunteer every Tuesday morning at the ANPP greenhouse in Arnaudville.

Stephen and his wife Jenifer maintained a large yard in mid-town Lafayette with over 100 species of native vegetation in which they manage for a wide diversity of native fauna including red fox and flying squirrels. The yard generates a huge number of pawpaw seeds for distribution to local growers, is a favorite of local birders. The Fournets' exemplary Gold Louisiana Certified Habitat has been on the ANPP Spring Native Garden Tour for the past few years and was recently featured in the Advocate as part of their feature article about the LCH Program's 500 certifications..

Photo: Jen and Stephen Fournet with their grandson Gideon Lemoine and dog Tank in their Lafayette yard in January.