Landry seen as underdog to Boustany
February 7, 2012Joseph Clovis Autin
February 9, 2012
Organizers of Saturday’s Wetlands Youth Summit hope the 83 participants, 47 of whom were high school students from Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary parishes, took away more than a tote bag filled with an Environmental Protection Agency-labeled Frisbee, two promotional pencils and a pen, a note pad, a word search game, a crossword puzzle, a screen printed koozie, a South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center bookmark, lanyards made from recycled plastic and a folder filled with information about the day-long event and participating agencies.
South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center Development Director Jonathan Foret said he believes the assembly gained a better understanding of challenges and risks facing inhabitants of the state’s coastal areas, and a passion to contribute their knowledge and understanding to saving the region.
“We are hoping these workshops provide students with the skills necessary to make informed and respectful decisions,” Foret said. “What we are seeing is that some of these kids coming from vulnerable areas have [a] passion within them because that is their homes. The other students are aware of the issues. These types of events give students background information where they can make their own judgments.”
Exercises were presented to show students existing projects and teach them about the process and procedures involved in moving ideas through government agencies and a maze of legal regulations before they can become enacted.
Photo displays, videos and PowerPoint presentations offered students various angles to view the need for coastal awareness and action on issues involving barrier island restoration, sediment delivery, shoreline protection and delta management.
“LSU [did] a workshop on land ethics, because that is something very relevant to our area and all the coastal parishes,” Foret said. “We’re being faced with areas such as Isle de Jean Charles, which is very vulnerable to storm surge.”
The classroom seminar at the Terrebonne Parish North Branch Library featured presentations from the EPA, state agencies and environmental advocates.
“We are so glad to have this for the kids,” Future Leaders of America’s Gulf Coordinator Jennifer Hamilton said. “They are the ones that will be making decisions in the future and this helps them have the background information to make those decisions.”
“We are very happy to have so many partners involved in producing the Wetlands Youth Summit,” Foret said. “The [Terrebonne Public] Library has been a huge partner of ours, the EPA, LSU School of Cost and Environment, as well as Button Up an Bayou Gray, so we’ve got the two youth groups from the area, Future Leaders of America’s Gulf as well as Sassafras Louisiana. We couldn’t have done any of this without all those partners coming together.”
Much of the program focused on what brought about the coastal crisis, accusation programs and information gathering opportunities.
During 2011, the SLWDC raised more than $80,000 through contributions, fundraisers and grants to finance educational programs.
Students participating in the Wetlands Youth Summit are registered to meet quarterly to learn specific issues and plan for what a new group of youths will learn the next year, which organizers hope will include hands-on experience in the field.
A total of 83 participants, 47 being students from Tri-parish high schools, listen as representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency open the 2012 Wetlands Youth Summit. MIKE NIXON
