Last year, ESA President David Lodge implored members to step up engagement with public education and outreach. National Parks are ideal places for ecologists to do so. They preserve a wide variety of ecosystems and biota; they are visited and beloved by millions of people who want to learn; and they are staffed by professionals who collaborate with scientists in research, science communication, and education. Participants on this field trip will explore the protected wetlands of New Orleans’s largest national park, and how ecologists collaborate with park staff to engage diverse public audiences in science and conservation. The morning features a boat trip into the unique bayous, swamps and marshes of the Barataria Preserve unit of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park. The afternoon offers presentations, discussions, and hands-on practice with a variety of education and outreach activities that local ecologists use to make science in the park a part of the visitor’s experience. Examples may include interpretive programs developed collaboratively with scientists; migratory bird research that engages the public through nest box construction activities; bat monitoring and conservation ecology with citizen science components; phenology monitoring with Nature’s Notebook; and creative use of the park for undergraduate courses by local faculty.