The center focuses on studying the environment and culture of the wetlands of the Bayou region. Most of the research that will be archived will be reports based on surveys, structured interviews, oral histories, field notes and observation.
John Doucet, dean of the College of Sciences and Technology and director of coastal initiatives, and Gary LaFleur, R.E. Miller Endowed Professor of Honors Studies and executive director of the Center for Bayou Studies will co-direct the project. Shana Walton, associate professor of English, modern language and cultural studies, will oversee day-to-day operations and student training as the project manager.
“The Digital Curation project will improve how levels of government from federal to local find key resources for environmental impact statements and other reports related to the Louisiana Gulf Coast,” said Doucet in a news release.
Nicholls to build $14.5 million coastal research center
Nicholls State University in Thibodaux will begin preliminary work next year on a $14.5 million Coastal Center that will serve as a hub for research on Louisiana s eroding wetlands and how to preserve and restore them.
“As the state university that is geographically closest to the coast, Nicholls is at the epicenter of our coastal land loss crisis and is ideally situated to host this Coastal Center and educate the next generation of leaders in this field,” Chip Kline, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said in a news release.
Announced in 2019 by Gov. John Bel Edwards, Nicholls expects to receive bids by year s end on groundwork for the 33,000-square-foot building, officials said. That work, financed by $2.5 million from the state coastal agency, is set to begin early next year.
“Make me a park!”
The message is written on posters taped to a 6-foot chain-link fence. And shouted, loudly, by Lewis Weitzman, a resident of Cambridge.
Weitzman is shouting about Jerry’s Pond a fenced-off pond completely closed to the public, sandwiched between the Alewife T Station and Russell Field in North Cambridge. He s at the pond on a fall day, running a clean-up event with Friends of Jerry’s Pond, a community group he co-founded with Eric Grunebaum.
Lewis Weitzman during the clean-up day at Jerry s Pond. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
“We could create a lot more space here,” says Grunebaum, “and that space could be used for off-road bike paths, meandering nature walks, some boardwalks through the woods. It would improve the natural landscape, but also give people access to it.”