2021
YEAR IN REVIEW
In m any ways, 20 2 1 h a s b e e n a di f f i c u l t y e a r f o r t h o s e o f u s i n south Louisiana. We have e n d u red another 1 2 m o n t h s o f th e p a n d e m i c , a n d p e o p l e a r e s t ill suffering from one side o f o ur coast to th e o t h e r , a s w e l l a s f a r i n l a n d , a f t e r t h e d e v a s t ating hurricanes of the p a s t two years. S o m e p e o p l e a r e d e c o r a t i n g f o r t h e h o l i d a y s i n h omes that have been stri p ped to the st u d s . I n t h i s s e a s o n o f g i v i n g , I h o p e y o u ’ l l r e m ember that our friends and n e i g hbors still ne e d o u r h e l p . W e s ay it a lot he r e , b u t n e v e r b e f o r e h a s c o a s t a l r e s t o r a t i o n b een so important and so u r g e nt in Louisian a . F o r t u n a t e l y , d e s p i t e t h e c h a l l e n g e s , w e h a v e accomplished a lot in 2 0 2 1 thanks to o u r f r i e n d s a n d su p p o r t e r s l i k e y o u . . F o r i n s t a n c e, we built our fourth o y s t er reef, this o n e i n t h e w a t e r s o f P l a q u e m i n e s P a r i s h , w h e r e it will help minimize e r o s ion and crea t e h a b i t a t f o r ne w o y s t e r s t o g r o w . W e h e l p e d educate a diverse set of y o u n g people abo u t t h e i m p o r t an c e o f o u r w o r k t h r o u g h o u r F u ture Coastal Leaders and S t u d ent Ambassad o r s p r o g r a m s . W e h e l p e d f a c i l i t a t e p u b l i c p a rticipation in the process of p e r m itting the M i d - B a r a t a r i a S ed i m e n t D i v e r s i o n , t h e m o s t i m p o rtant coastal restoration p r o j ect in Louisia n a t o d a t e , a s i t n e a r s c o n s t r u c t i o n . A n d w e h osted our biennial State of th e Coast confer e n c e , i n v i r t u a l f o r m a t , w e l c o m i n g h u n d r e d s o f scientists, students, e d u c ators, elect e d o f f i c i a l s , i n d us t r y l e a d e r s a n d m o r e t o t h e c onversations about our c o a s tal challeng e s a n d s o l u t i o n s. W e k now that our w o r k i s n o t d on e , a n d t h e r e a r e m a j o r m i l e s t o nes on the horizon for n e x t year. Among t h e m : W e p l a n t o b u i l d o u r f i f t h a n d s i x t h o y ster reefs; we’ll recognize th e heroes of Hu r r i c a n e s I d a a n d L a u r a t h r o u g h o u r S t e w a r d s h i p Awards; we expect to g a t h er in person f o r o u r a n n u a l o y s t e r S h e l l - A - B r a t i o n ; a n d w e h ope to see ground broken o n s ome of the m o s t i m p o r t a n t re s t o r a t i o n p r o j e c t s i n h i s t o r y . O ur small but mighty team is r e ady to face n e w c h a l l e n g e s , a n d w e h o p e y o u a r e t o o . W e a re grateful to you for jo i n ing us, and we l o o k f o r w a r d t o s e e i n g w h a t w e c a n d o t o g e t her in 2022. S i n c erely, K i m Reyher E x e c utive direct o r C o a l ition to Resto r e C o a s t a l L o u i s i a n a
We hosted a forum of New Orleans City Council candidates with our partners from the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans and Urban Conservancy to highlight the important of water and coastal issues in the race.
What Remains
With Kristi Trail of Pontchartrain Conservancy, we wrote an oped on the urgency of coastal restoration. We published a new organizational brochure and new edition of our Stewardship Guide, which offers ways for companies or other organizations to get involved in coastal restoration, as well as a Holiday Shopping Guide. Our State of the Coast conference went virtual, with much of the content now available online for free. Our Restoration on the Half Shell program also went virtual.
Our Oyster Shell Recycling Program was featured in the documentary short “What Remains,” which debuted at the Southern Foodways Alliance spring symposium and has been making the rounds on the festival circuit.
We refreshed our logo and named the three pelicans (Cercil, Huey P. and Bayou Pete) with the help of our supporters. We learned about the joys of shucking and serving oysters at home, enjoyed music from Sweet Crude and shared a libation with 130 supporters during our virtual Shell-A-Bration, in partnership with Oysters XO. We recognized the heroes who have helped protect and restore Louisiana’s coast with our Stewardship Awards. We engaged dozens of student leaders through our Student Ambassadors and Future Coastal Leaders programs. We published a periodic newsletter, the Gulf Coast Post, that connected us with thousands of supporters. We restarted our Oyster Shell Recycling Program after shell collection was put on pause in the early days of the pandemic, adding new partners like Chef’s Brigade, the Green Project, Glass Half Full and Two C’s and a number of new restaurants, and working with existing partners such as Grand Bayou Indian Village and the Meraux Foundation. We partnered with Xavier’s Geaux Green Club and Lost Land Tours to lead Xavier University students on a swamp kayak tour, with support from Audubon Louisiana. Our work was made possible by the following corporate sponsors: EMR; Shell; Meraux Foundation; Bully Industrial; Stolthaven Terminals; and Chef’s Brigade. We received grants from a number of companies and organizations that support our work to restore Louisiana’s coast: Apache Tree Grant Program; Cheniere Energy; Restore America’s Estuaries; Coypu Foundation; Entergy; Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation; Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries; Mississippi River Network; National Fish and Wildlife Federation; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association— Sectoral Applications Research Program; Phillips 66; Walton Family Foundation; and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
On the policy front, we supported a resolution asking the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to conduct a study on the final destination of oyster shells removed from Louisiana waters. This year we also saw the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, one of our priority projects and an essential element to the rebuilding of our coast. We submitted comments from our organization and encouraged supporters to submit their own comments. We also submitted comments a number of times this year to help advance the River Reintroduction to Maurepas Swamp project. And we advocated to advance the RISEE Act, which would bring more money to the state from offshore energy production revenues. Through our Native Plant Program, we planted hundreds of trees and more than 10,000 plants to help restore critical habitat from one side of our coast to the other. Our existing plantings survived Hurricane Ida with no significant damage. We engaged 400 volunteers as we built our fourth oyster reef in the water of Plaquemines Parish. The reef spans 300 linear feet and is comprised of 150 tons of bagged shell. We worked with dozens of volunteers to prepare shell for future reefs at our new shell pile in Violet. We also passed 10 million pounds of shell recycled through our program. All four of our existing reefs remained intact following Hurricane Ida, with new oyster growth on each of them. And we also have grown, despite the pandemic, adding new staff and a new group of AmeriCorps members.
WOW!
WHAT A YEAR. BUT WAIT TILL YOU SEE WHAT WE’VE GOT PLANNED FOR 2022!