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While he was at the helm of the family company that makes Tabasco sauce, Edward McIlhenny established a refuge on Avery Island, Louisiana, that remains a haven for wildlife today.
On a salt-dome island in the coastal marshes of the Louisiana Gulf Coast, one of the best-known hot-sauce manufacturers in the world shares space with snowy egrets and alligators.
Avery Island, Louisiana, a 3.4-square-mile private island 180 miles west of New Orleans, is home to Tabasco, established in 1868 when Edmund McIlhenny developed the recipe that’s still used today. It’s also where you’ll find Bird City, the wildfowl refuge created by Edmund’s son, Edward Avery McIlhenny, that’s been credited with saving the snowy egret from extinction.
Today, the family-owned McIlhenny Company continues their legacy, manufacturing its hot sauce exclusively on Avery Island while continuing to conserve wildlife and preserve and protect the marshes and bayou on its 2,200-acre estate.
Bird City Takes Flight
Growing up on rural Avery Island, Edward, also known as E.A. or Ned, developed an interest in science and nature. By the time he was a young man, he had become particularly intrigued in the field of oology, the study of bird eggs.
And he was especially concerned about the decline of the snowy egret. Plume hunters had been killing the birds solely for their delicate feathers, which were used in fashionable clothing, causing a dramatic decline in their population in the United States.
“Although Edward was a conservationist-hunter, he strongly opposed this wasteful destruction,” McIlhenny Company Archives historian Shane Bernard says.
Around 1895, Edward brought eight snowy egret hatchlings to his private estate, built an aviary over a pond, and released them in the fall to migrate. In the spring, the birds returned to nest — and they brought friends. By 1911, Edward reported that 100,000 snowy egrets were nesting on Avery Island.
“This growth was not due solely to natural increase,” Bernard says. “The rescued birds attracted other migrating egrets to the Island, which in turn drew more still, which over time created a snowball effect.”
All About Egrets (and Alligators)
Bird City was just one of Edward’s conservation projects. He was active in wildlife preservation and research even as he served as the president of the McIlhenny Company for 51 years, from 1898 to 1949.
“Edward’s reputation as a conservationist remained strong until his death in 1949 and continues to this day,” Bernard says.
He supported legislation aimed at ending the feather trade. He co-produced The Snowy Egret and Its Extermination (1913), one of the first conservation films, and hosted screenings around the country and on Capitol Hill to drum up support for wildlife protection legislation. And he facilitated the donation of about 175,000 acres to the state of Louisiana as wildlife refuges, land that remains protected to this day.
Edward was also an early and active bird-bander: He tagged more than 285,000 birds in an effort to learn about migratory patterns, which were poorly understood in the United States at the time. He published more than 50 articles about his research in academic journals and popular magazines, as well as three books: Bird City (1934), The Alligator’s Life History (1935, on Amazon and Thriftbooks), and The Autobiography of an Egret (1940, on Amazon).
Since the beginning, the realities of a remote location required a culture of use, reuse, and minimal waste. It’s always been part of our ethos and practices, from repurposing old oak barrels to build fences and tables to using pepper skins and seeds filtered from the sauce, for ingredient and agricultural uses.
– McIlhenny Company Archives historian Shane Bernard
Still, his work was not without its detractors. “Edward was widely praised as an American conservation leader,” Bernard says. “However, in the 1920s, he faced criticism from conservation purists who objected to his conservationist-hunter model.”
These critics mainly objected to a wildfowl refuge he proposed in south Louisiana that would be closed to hunting for nine months a year and open to dues-paying hunters the other three months. The dues would pay for game wardens to protect the area during the closed months. It was a model later adopted by groups like Ducks Unlimited, of which Edward was a charter member.
A Conservation Legacy
After Edward’s death, the McIlhenny family continued his efforts on Avery Island and in the surrounding coastal marshes. They planted cypress trees for habitat, left fields uncut for wildlife forage, and restored marshlands with cordgrass and bulrush to combat erosion. In 1971, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a series of conservation stamps on Avery Island to honor the McIlhenny family’s long tradition of conservationism.
Today, the McIlhenny Company participates in coastal restoration projects and habitat protection, while also protecting and conserving Avery Island’s wildlife and plant species. It also continues to use the low-waste recipe and methods developed by Edmund McIlhenny to make Tabasco sauces.
“Since the beginning, the realities of a remote location required a culture of use, reuse, and minimal waste,” Bernard says. “It’s always been part of our ethos and practices, from repurposing old oak barrels to build fences and tables to using pepper skins and seeds filtered from the sauce for ingredient and agricultural uses.”
The company also maintains Jungle Gardens, a 170-acre botanic garden on Avery Island that opened to the public in 1935. There, visitors can explore the gardens where Edward propagated rare plant species, including camellia, iris, holly, and bamboo varieties and, depending on the time of year, watch snowy egrets, deer, alligators, ducks, and owls as they roam the property.
Robin Jones contributed reporting to this story.
What You Can Do: Help Save Birds
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North America has lost more than 3 billion breeding birds since 1970. But you don’t have to be the heir to a hot-sauce fortune to help reverse the trend — you can help birds live long and productive lives by making a few small changes in your daily habits.
- Make your windows safer. Studies estimate that more than a billion birds die every year in the U.S. and Canada in collisions with buildings. During the day, birds see the reflection of trees and sky in windows and think it’s habitat they can fly into. At night, city lights reflecting off the glass can draw them in. At your home, use screens, film, stickers, or other markers on large windows to break up the reflection. And urge your representatives in Congress to advocate for bird-friendly building policies.
- Keep your cat inside. Cats are instinctive predators, and even well-fed housecats will hunt birds. If you must let your cat outdoors, build a “catio,” train them to walk on a leash, or take them out in a backpack or stroller. Also, consider working with your city government and local organizations to curb feral cat communities — they’re responsible for more than two-thirds of the birds killed in the U.S.
- Landscape with native plants. Birds can’t find enough food or shelter when their habitat is reduced to lawns and pavement. The nectar, seeds, berries, and insects that come with native plants can help sustain birds — and can make it easier for them to find places to nest. Learn about the best native plants to use in your area here.
- Share this information. Tell your friends what you’re doing to help birds, and you just might inspire them to take action themselves. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers more information on these three tips, along with many others, on their website and in a printable two-page handout.
