South Louisiana is known for alligators, Spanish moss, and live oak trees, but it is also home to armadillos, otters, and hundreds of species of birds. The Barataria Preserve south of New Orleans is the park's wildest site with 20,000 acres of swamp, marsh, trails, and waterways, a living laboratory of Louisiana's endangered wetlands.

The natural world is never far away at any site, however. Chalmette Battlefield provides a resting place for birds traveling along the Mississippi River flyway, bayous meander behind the Acadian Cultural Center and the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center, open farmland surrounds the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center, and butterflies migrate over the French Quarter Visitor Center.