Tag: Louisiana Coast

Two Endowed Professorships for Coastal Studies Created at Nicholls

Nicholls State University is positioned to have new endowed professorships in coastal studies thanks to the generosity of the Callais sisters, a press release from the university announced.

The Callais sisters, Rachel and Leah Callais, have been supporters of Nicholls State University for years, having recently awarded $200,000 to the University’s College of Nursing for the creation of a computer lab in Ayo Hall. More recently, it was announced that each sister is donating $60,000 for a total donation gift of $120,000 that will be used to create two professorships in honor of their father, Mike Callais.

Their donation will be matched by the University of Louisiana System Foundation with an additional $80,000 added to the Callais Sisters’ donation. This total $200,000 gift will create two endowed professorships in coastal studies, each named:

  • The University of Louisiana System Foundation and C. Michael Callais Endowed Professorship in Coastal Studies.
  • The University of Louisiana System Foundation and Charles M. Callais Endowed Professorship in Coastal Studies.

A joint statement from the Callais sisters read, “our family has always been involved with the coast and the Gulf of Mexico, and that is why it was so difficult to drive around after Hurricane Ida and see the impact to our community. We know that someday it could all be gone, so we believe it’s important to preserve the coast, to do our best to keep it around and keep it alive.”

The University of Louisiana System Foundation gifted their matching donation of $80,000 in an effort to support and fund new STEM professorships. In 2019, the Chicago Community Trust had gifted the ULS Foundation $800,000 in order to support new professorships concerning STEM fields, or fields focusing on the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Along with their matching donation, the ULS Foundation emphasized that one professorship is to be awarded to a male and the other to a female.

The Nicholls press release also detailed that the Callais sister’s donation could not have come at a better time. This is due to the fact that a new Coastal Center is set to come to Nicholls’ campus to study the effect of land loss in the Terrebonne and Atchafalaya Basins, and according to Dr. John Doucet, the director of coastal studies and the dean of the College of Science and Technology, “these professorships will help the university attract and retain top coastal scientists.” The announcement of the new Coastal Center came from Nicholls State University and the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority back in 2019.

Dr. Doucet shared more about how the two new endowed professorships will directly impact those scientists in saying, “those professors will, in turn, develop solutions to restore and protect coastal communities where the Callais and other families live and work. The Callais family settled in the coastal marshland of the Lafourche Basin in the early 20th century. Over several generations, they have seen first-hand the changes and challenges of our coast that Nicholls will address through the Coastal Center.”

Rachel and Leah Callais’ donation will be highly beneficial for the future of coastal studies at Nicholls and the Louisiana Gulf Coast for years to come, and the Callais sisters reported in their joint statement that it’s all thanks to their father. “If it wasn’t for our dad then we wouldn’t have what we have, we wouldn’t be where we are and we wouldn’t know what we know. He showed us how to be a part of a community, how to live the right way and he instilled in us that we have to do whatever we can to help because it’s the right thing to do.”

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Louisiana Coastal Restoration Efforts Gain Support

After a recent environmental impact statement was publicly released by the Army Corps of Engineers, more and more support has accumulated for the Louisiana Coastal restoration efforts, specifically Louisiana’s Mississippi River Delta, according to an article from Biz New Orleans.

This drafted version of the Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was released for a period of public review and comment, allowing for individuals and organizations to speak up and engage in the ongoing restoration efforts. The DEIS proposes that a sediment diversion is to be placed throughout a portion of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, extending into the Mid-Barataria Basin in Plaquemines Parish.

The Barataria Basin is currently experiencing one of the highest land loss rates in the world, and if approved, this sediment diversion could assist in the rebuilding and maintaining of tens of thousands of acres of land in the Plaquemines Parish area.

One group advocating for the implementation of the sediment diversion as a part of the Louisiana Coastal Master Planproject is “Restore the Mississippi River Delta,” which is a coalition of the National Audubon Society, Environmental Defence Fund, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. The coalition refers to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion as Louisiana’s “best shot” to turn the tide on the state’s coastal land loss.

Between 1932 and 2016, the Barataria Basin has lost approximately 295,000 acres of land, making its land loss rate among the highest worldwide. A loss of land on this massive scale affects more than just maps of the region, as it displaces entire communities, threatens essential infrastructure and associated jobs, and completely destroys an iconic wildlife habitat that was once abundant and diverse.

The coalition’s campaign director Steve Cochran spoke of the immediacy of the proposal by saying, “unless we act now, we risk losing it all. The future of our entire region is at stake. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion will build more wetlands than any other individual restoration project in the world, in an area experiencing some of the highest land loss rates on the planet. If our region is to have a fighting chance against land loss, hurricanes, and sea-level rise, we must put the muddy Mississippi back to work to rebuild our coast.”

The full Draft Environmental Impact Statement, released by The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), consists of over 5000 pages, 10 chapters, and 20 appendices, detailing just how the proposed project could help to restore Louisiana’s coast. The full DEIS can be found on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ website.

David Muth is the director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf Program, which is a part of the “Restore the Mississippi River Delta” coalition, and he’s called for immediate action to be taken. Muth spoke of the importance saying, “Louisiana’s unparalleled coastal habitat is at risk of near-complete collapse in the face of climate change-driven sea-level rise. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, perhaps more than any other project now planned, is vital to the long-term health of our wildlife and fisheries resources. We are finally beginning to address the serious challenges we face at an appropriate scale, using the right tool — the river. If we act now, we can remain a world-renowned Sportsman’s Paradise.”

Louisiana’s iconic coast is home to over 2 million people, a provider of nearly 30 percent of the commercial fishing landings of the United States, and a producer of 90 percent of the country’s outer continental oil and gas. These statistics and plenty more released in the DEIS denote that the time to implement coastal restoration efforts is sooner- rather than later.

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