Photo by Katie Sikora, courtesy of CRCL.
A marsh grass planting in Pointe Aux Chenes with Glass Half Full.
December calls us to good deeds—good deeds, and gift-giving. While we may spend our early winter weeks painstakingly and carefully selecting items for those upon whom we bestow our greatest fondness, such as our family and friends, there is some precedent for doing a good turn for the broader public, the local community, and the wider world. And, if in many ways the Gulf Coast is our region’s greatest gift, it’s high time we engage in some reciprocity.
Lucky for us, Louisiana and Mississippi possess between them a wealth of environmental organizations, nonprofits, and coalitions bent on coastal restoration and preservation. Volunteers are always welcome, whether they plant marsh grass and cypress trees, bag oyster shells to create reefs, recycle a Christmas tree to prevent coastal erosion, or simply commit to eating at restaurants that serve wild-caught Gulf seafood (we know, an absolute hardship).
“I think that there's a place for everybody in coastal restoration,” said James Karst, communications director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL). “We want to bring everybody together, because that is the way that we can accomplish the most, and really deliver the best possible outcome for the people and the environment that exists in the most beautiful place on the planet.”
Photo by Katie Sikora, courtesy of CRCL.
Marsh grass planting with Glass Half Full.
The Scope
The organizations that dedicate themselves to coastal restoration are regional and hyper-local alike, some with broader goals for the coast as a complex ecosystem, others identifying specific bodies of water, locations, or wildlife that need the most help.
Some, like Restore the Mississippi River Delta, rope in other organizations working toward a shared goal, such as that of achieving a restored, sustainable Mississippi River Delta—bringing in a range of expertise.
“Restore the Mississippi River Delta is a true coalition,” said Simone Maloz, the organization’s campaign director. “For the most part . . .we want to implement science-based projects that protect our valuable communities here in coastal Louisiana, and we want to do that for the long term sustainable future … it takes a lot of different things to make that happen.”
“I think that there's a place for everybody in coastal restoration." —James Karst
This includes resolute grassroots legwork—community conversations about Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, meeting with folks in Baton Rouge to discuss the importance of coastal funding, and getting involved with coastal and regional projects to assess needs for access and support. Similarly, the Ocean Springs-based Gulf of America Alliance, which encompasses Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, collaborates with organizations across the Gulf Coast region to produce the best outcomes for the complex, multifaceted problems involved.
“That's things like improving coastal community resilience, working on improving habitats, working with wildlife and fisheries, environmental education, and [mitigating] marine debris,” said Christina Mohrman, Director of Strategic Planning and Partnerships at the Gulf of America Alliance. “And we bring together partners from all five states—from state and federal agencies, from nonprofits, academics, business, and industry to work on these issues together.”
Others, like the Pontchartrain Conservancy (PC), possess a storied legacy in their communities, built upon the grueling work of environmental advocacy fought over decades. PC was originally founded in the 1980s to save the polluted Lake Pontchartrain—a task many deemed unrealistic and indicative of bad economics. Today, the group’s focus is all things water.
“The majority of our staff are scientists, and we work in areas related to water throughout sixteen parishes in South Louisiana, so that’s twenty-five percent of the state,” said Kristi Trail, PC’s executive director. “Really, what we're mostly looking at is water that we're using for forms of recreation and economic drivers—so, you know, rivers and lakes and things like that, testing the water quality.” PC also works with community members, local governments, and the state government on its research.
Then there are other organizations, such as the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, which operate as both go-betweens for various partners while also developing programs and harnessing boots-on-the-ground volunteers to get the nitty gritty work of restoring the coast done.
“We are active statewide, but especially along Louisiana’s coast,” Karst, of CRCL, explained. “Really with the overarching goal of getting people involved in coastal restoration, getting them to become advocates for saving our state’s coast, where we’ve had about 2,000 square miles of land vanish in less than a century.”
Photo by Katie Sikora, courtesy of CRCL.
Marsh grass planting with Glass Half Full.
The Gifts
Across the Gulf Coast, these non-profits (and plenty others) offer many and sundry ways to give back. Read on for suggestions on how to harness your talents, time, and tastebuds for good.
Get Down and Dirty: Grab your rubber boots and some sunscreen. Plenty of environmental organizations need folks to roll up their sleeves and plant grasses in marshes or dunes for coastal protection and storm surge buffering, while others ask for help reforesting Louisiana swamps with cypress trees, which were heavily logged a century ago—leading to a critical ecological gap in our coastal forests. Still more need help installing native plants to revitalize various ecosystems. Winter is the ideal planting season in the Gulf, when the weather is mild. Participating groups include Pontchartrain Conservancy, The Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, and Common Ground Relief.
Cleanup, Cleanup, Every Waterway Everywhere: For those without a green thumb, there’s always room for a good, old-fashioned litter cleanup. Rubber boots, work gloves, and the perseverance required to fish unidentified trash from bayous and shorelines are a must. Learn more about programs through Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, Louisiana Bayou Society, Clean Bayou, and Keep Louisiana Beautiful.
Aww, Shucks: Oyster aficionados, this one’s for you. After you enjoy an oyster (or fifty) from your favorite seafood joint, the leftover shells, it turns out, often end up in landfills. To avoid this outcome and do a little extra for the coast, some organizations have developed partnerships with seafood restaurants in various coastal cities to donate their oyster shells. After the shells are collected and bagged, they are returned to the water to create artificial oyster shell reefs. Anyone can help with the bagging or reef-building process, but even being choosy about where you dine—at participating restaurants—can make a difference. The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana has spearheaded these efforts.
Rockin’ Around the (Recycled) Christmas Tree: A tried and true holiday tradition in our area includes ferrying your evergreen tree to a designated drop-off after yuletide festivities have concluded. Christmas tree barriers slow erosion, trap sediment, provide wave buffers, and avoid overstuffing landfills. Be sure to strip the tinsel and lights from your tree before you do your duty. Participating parishes include Orleans, St. Bernard, Jefferson, East Baton Rouge, St. Charles, St. Tammany, and many more.
“We need supportive voices, and we need folks that are coastal champions—there’s no ‘one size fits all. It’s affecting each and every single one of us that are here.” —Simone Maloz
Shatterproof: New Orleans-based Glass Half Full offers drop-off locations across the city for residents to recycle their glass, which is then converted into sustainable sand and gravel—some of which is used to prevent coastal restoration. The initiative has garnered a lot of attention and fostered community partnerships. Earlier this year, the company opened a new, larger recycling facility in Chalmette.
Eat, Shop, and Enjoy Local: It may seem obvious, but our Gulf boasts a delectable seafood bounty unlike anywhere else. To keep our coastal communities and fisheries strong, be sure to shop for wild, Gulf-caught seafood, and patronize restaurants that advertise local and sustainably sourced seafood. This is a bigger ask than you may think—seafood fraud is rampant along the Gulf Coast, with fakers trying to pass imported products as local fare. Learn more about how the Louisiana Shrimp Festival supports coastal communities.
Citizen Scientists: For this one, you can leave the lab coat behind. Plenty of organizations need real-time data to help understand what is happening to the coast and the species who call it home. Some groups, like the Pontchartrain Conservancy, might ask folks from the community to gather information about flooding to determine when it’s happening, and where the causes lie. Others, like the Delta chapter (Louisiana and Mississippi) of the National Audubon Society provide the opportunity for volunteers to participate in bird monitoring. There are also coalition groups, such as the Gulf of America Alliance, that provide extensive lists of their partner organizations across the Gulf Coast engaging in all types of tracking and data collection programs.
Back to School: If all else fails, there are always opportunities to learn—participating in STEM educational seminars, coastal meetings and conferences, or informational events to brush up on your own intellectual resources. You can even become a leader or teacher to pass important environmental knowledge onto kids and adults alike. Check out Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Pontchartrain Conservancy, Restore the Mississippi River Delta, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, and many more like-minded orgs.
Image courtesy of CRCL.
Volunteers help to deploy oyster shells as an artificial reef to prevent coastal erosion.
The Impact
The message from our contingent of environmentally-conscious advocates? Every little bit, however small, counts. After all, the stakes are high; coastal erosion and wetland loss have a profound and devastating ripple effect.
“Our state is losing land rapidly, and that impacts communities,” Karst said. “If we don't have healthy wetlands, we don't have healthy fisheries.”
To the people who live, work, and play on the Gulf, Morhman added, the region is vital. We give back by protecting and promoting the places that we call home. And while there is no catch-all, blanket solution to solve the Gulf’s diverse and complex problems, environmental leaders insist that everyone can play a part to chip away at the problem—even if it means simply speaking about the issues impacting our coast.
“We need supportive voices, and we need folks that are coastal champions—there’s no ‘one size fits all,’” Maloz said. “It’s affecting each and every single one of us that are here.”
Advocates recognize the prospect of giving back to the Gulf may feel daunting, or like a drop in the conservation bucket; but they maintain the overall fight is worth the effort. Trail pointed out that, in light of Louisiana’s recent cancellation of some large-scale coastal restoration projects, the work of protection and conservation has fallen upon local nonprofits and organizations to pick up the environmental slack—with, hopefully, help from volunteers.
“We've been through hard times before . . . We just need to keep pushing,” she said. “Sometimes it’s really gratifying to get out there. Maybe it's been two hours with us planting trees. Maybe you've spent a couple hours picking up some litter. But it's a reminder that small things can make a big difference.”
