Wetlands

Cypress Island exists because land was given away. The Nature Conservancy built the preserve from two generous land donations, and it now protects well over 9,000 acres of cypress-tupelo swamp and bottomland hardwood forest. It sits in the Teche-Vermilion and Atchafalaya watersheds, where the group and its partners aim to protect and restore 20,000 acres of swamp and forest by 2030. The swamp also does quiet work, filtering water on its way to the Gulf. Hunting, trapping and most fishing are prohibited inside the preserve, and fishing is allowed on Lake Martin's open water.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cypress Island Preserve at Lake Martin — steps away
  Nearly 10,000 acres of bottomland hardwood and cypress-tupelo swamp at the south end of Lake Martin, owned by The Nature Conservancy, with a boardwalk and a rookery of egrets, spoonbills and alligators.
• Vermilionville — 5.8 mi
  A living-history village of about 23 acres on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, opened in 1990 to interpret the Native peoples, Acadians, Creoles and people of African descent of the Attakapas region.
• Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site — 6.6 mi
  A bayou-side state site on former Attakapas hunting ground, with a raised Creole cottage of about 1815, a reproduction 1800 farmstead and its slave quarters, and the story behind Longfellow's Evangeline.
• St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church — 7.0 mi
  The Mother Church of the Acadians, founded in 1765 on St. Martin Square in St. Martinville, with a late 1870s Lourdes grotto and, a block away, the Evangeline Oak on Bayou Teche.

More markers nearby

• Lake Martin — steps away
• American Alligator — steps away
• The Pellerin-Chauffe House — 3.9 mi
• Welcome to Parks — 4.4 mi