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World Wetlands Day detailed the value of Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands to students at the Wetlands Discovery Center’s new home at the Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum.
The partnership between the two organizations was off to a good start on Monday as students embarked on World Wetlands Day with a scavenger hunt for information throughout the museum.
Jonathan Foret, executive director of the Wetlands Discovery Center, said the vanishing wetlands are a crucial element of the environment to educate students about, as agencies across the globe bring awareness to the value of wetlands on this day.
“The students of south Louisiana are ready to fight to preserve their way of life, but it is our responsibility to arm them with the tools necessary to win this battle,” Foret said.
Fourth and sixth grade students from Southdown Elementary, Village East Elementary and St. Francis de Sales Cathedral School attended the event, which brought awareness to saving coastal Louisiana.
Susan Testroet-Bergeron, outreach coordinator for the Coastal Wetlands, Planning, Protection and Restoration Act, conveyed to students how much land is actually lost to coastal erosion every hour of the day.
“If you watched the Super Bowl, Louisiana lost about four football fields of wetlands during that game,” Testroet-Bergeron said.
Wendy Delgado, a sixth and seventh grade science teacher at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral School, said she introduces her students to issues surrounding wetlands and the impacts of hurricanes in sixth grade.
“Right now we are learning about forces of motion so the subject of wetland erosion ties in to what we’re doing,” Delgado said.
Lisa Dorrington, a biologist with Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, had two baby alligators on site to discuss the role reptiles have in south Louisiana.
“The alligator farms are helping conserve the population of alligators and it’s a renewable resource that Louisiana is proud to have,” Dorrington said.
Charles (Chuck) Webber, with the USDA Sugarcane Research Unit in Houma, demonstrated a portable electric sugarcane mill to demonstrate how sugarcane is processed.
Organizations such as the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program and the Bayou Land Resource Conservation and Development Council also sponsored activities related to estuaries.
The Wetlands Center’s relocation to the Waterlife Museum was initiated as the center begins their capital campaign this spring to raise money for the construction of its permanent campus near the Courtyard Marriott and Main Branch Library.
“The Wetlands Discovery Center has always produced programs throughout the year that have taken place at the Waterlife Museum,” Foret said. “Although the mission of the Waterlife Museum and the Wetlands Discovery Center are not the same, we have enough common ground that the partnership makes sense.”
The first phase of construction for its new location will contain a live wetlands exhibit, equipped with an educational pavilion, which would allow students and visitors to conduct water quality testing and species classification.
Construction of the first phase will cost $1.3 million. Foret said the center has raised $100,000 for the project so far and his organization hopes to match 25 percent of the funding provided from a capital outlet request.
“This first phase allows us to get our feet wet with operating the grounds so that we can prove to the community that we are able to do what it is we say we are going to do,” Foret said.
Derrick Brasington, of Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, explains the behavior of an alligator to St. Francis de Sales Cathderal School students as part of World Wetlands Day at the Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum. The event also hosted other wetlands organizations to inform and promote coastal restoration.
