When does the story take place?

Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast was published by Mike Tidwell in the year 2003. The book details the period of time when Tidwell lived and worked with people in the bayous of southern Louisiana, and his discovery of the fact that their way of life had been endangered by unnatural erosion and loss of land caused by entities like oil companies. 
The book is not fictional, and it sometimes delves deep into the past to show how the environmental issues facing the  bayou's communities got started, although Tidwell was not sent to Louisiana to find a story until 1999. It is during this time period that his personal experiences come from, and all of his recordings of the lives of Cajun people living in the bayou.