Edith "Dotsy" Fauntleroy Smith
June 3, 2009Enell Bradley Brown
June 5, 2009
The coastal conservation group America’s WETLAND Foundation honored three prominent figures for their efforts to restore Louisiana’s coast at the Storm Warning IV rally in Houma on Sunday.
AWF bestowed on state Sen. Reggie Dupre (D-Bourg) the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award; U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) the Special Recognition Award, and WWL-TV news anchor Dennis Woltering the Conservationist of the Year Award.
The trio was chosen because they made coastal protection their top concern even as many other important issues needed their attention, according to Val Marmillion, America’s WETLAND Foundation managing director.
“When someone does that when they have a lot of different things they could choose, we try to focus our awards and our attention to those people,” he said. “Sen. Dupre was retiring after a long career in keeping coastal restoration as his top issue. Sen. Landrieu had authored the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) revenue sharing legislation, which is beginning to bring billions of dollars into this area.”
Dupre is only the third recipient of AWF’s Lifetime Achievement Award, along with former U.S. Sen. John Breaux and former Department of Natural Resources Secretary Jack Caldwell.
Dupre is the long-time chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee. He is retiring after the current legislative session ends June 25 to become executive director of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District.
“I’m very much honored and humbled to receive this award. It’s been a team effort,” he said. “Since day one when I was elected to the Legislature in 1995, coastal protection has been my top priority. That will continue to be even as I move toward an implementation position with the Terrebonne levee board.”
Dupre said he would become even more active on coastal issues heading the levee district than he was in his years in public office.
“From what I’ve seen of the state master plan and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, they will be utilizing levee districts as their local partners in implementing wetland protection projects, not just levee projects,” he said.
As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Landrieu has helped secure billions of dollars for coastal wetlands restoration, hurricane protection and flood control projects.
Her legislative highlight is the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, which established revenue sharing for coastal energy-producing states Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.
“Sen. Landrieu helped establish a dedicated stream of funding that will be necessary for Louisiana to protect itself from storms for many years to come,” said Sidney Coffee, AWF senior policy advisor on climate, energy and the coast.
Woltering is a longtime environmental reporter. He is only the second Conservationist of the Year award recipient.
Former Baton Rouge Morning Advocate reporter Mike Dunn received the other.
Over the next year, Marmillion said AWF will focus on getting a major diversion of the Mississippi River to bring fresh water to the bayou estuaries. The group believes this will replenish the disappearing wetlands.
“At some point you have to divert the river or the land loss will be so great and so fast we won’t be able to stop it,” Marmillion said. “The delta is fed by river sediments and nutrients. We’ve put a wall around that river since 1927.”
“Our worst nightmares have come true,” he added. “One, we killed the wetlands, and two, we created dead zones in the Gulf.”
As the 2009 hurricane season opens, Marmillion insisted that individuals like Dupre, Landrieu and Woltering could be ambassadors for the plight of Louisiana’s wetlands beyond state borders.
“The lesson I’ve learned is that people in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi are very interested in our story about wetland loss,” Marmillion said. “We can’t compete against each other. It’s the whole Gulf ecosystem that is threatened.
“We need to start thinking as an ecosystem instead of individual states and congressional districts,” he added.
Among the hundreds of attendees at the Storm Warning IV: Last Stand for America’s WETLAND rally in Houma on Sunday was Woman of the Storm. The group’s members tossed footballs – representing the football-field size land loss Louisiana suffers every 50 minutes – to the crowd. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF
