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11/10/2021 1 Comment

Water Management, Ecological Health and Societal Impacts

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Click the above still frame or click here to view the video on LMNA Channel
Living With Water - A Solutions Focused Panel Discussion

This video could be of interest to anyone whose community environment includes this vital but mercurial element!
By Aimée K. Thomas, Ph.D. Director of Environment Program Department of Biological Sciences & Environment Program Loyola University New Orleans.
“Water Management and its Ecological Health and Societal Impacts” panel discussion was hosted on Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at Loyola New Orleans by the Loyola University New Orleans Environment Program and Department of Biological Sciences in conjunction with the Louisiana Master Naturalists of Greater New Orleans.
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The panelists are successful and inspiring leaders from the Greater New Orleans community who were invited to discuss the role their organizations play in storm water management, utilizing innovative approaches to solve environmental water issues so that we can all learn how to reduce our impact and sustainably embrace living with water.  We recorded it and it is available on our YouTube channel. Please share to others through email, social media and your website.
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The purpose of our research is to bring different communities together in the hopes of developing creative sustainable ways of dealing with excess water around the city.

​We are also studying the changes, if any, that people make after learning about the significance of water and empowering them to take control of their environment! 
Our video on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLkX17iOtOE&t=0s​
Mirabeau Water Project
Resilience & Sustainability - Areas of Focus - Green Infrastructure - Hazard Mitigation - Stormwater Projects - Mirabeau Water Garden: Phase I - City of New Orleans (nola.gov)
Web. www.loyno.edu/environment

Visit our website. Tropicalnaturalhistory.org 

Facebook @loyola environment program

Twitter @ loyolaENVA

Instagram @loyolaenvironment
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A little background on this event:  New Orleans is a coastal city which is particularly vulnerable to flooding and faces increasing threats of hurricanes, sea level rise, and subsidence, which are all factors that increase the severity of flooding.

​Because on average the city gets 64 inches of rain each year, we have flooding issues that have been solved by pumping excess water from the streets to a canal system that feeds to Lake Pontchartrain using gray infrastructure.


The participants are New Orleans citizens including local high school teachers and students, members of non-profits, industry figures, scientists, engineers, and academics. They have all learned about the formation of southeast Louisiana, the founding of New Orleans, gray and green infrastructure, and creating the best tools for educating the community about sustainably embracing water in our city.

Our Panelists include:


USACE: William Veatch, Hydrologist,
Mastodonte: Arien Hall & Luisa Abballe, Business Owners
Sewerage & Water Board New Orleans: Tyler Antwerp,
Director Thrive Nola: Willie Autman,
Green Works Manager Urban Conservancy: Sam Commagere, Program Manager 

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11/10/2021 0 Comments

Award-winning Film-maker Emma Reid Features on LMNGBR Nature Notes

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Click here or on the screenshot above to view the Zoom with Emma Reid on LMNA Channel
Hosted October 6th, 2021, by Louisiana Master Naturalists of Greater Baton Rouge, this episode of LMNGBR Nature Notes brings us a Zoom presentation by Emma Reid, award-winning film maker of "Finding Common Ground" (Telly Award) and "In The Blind"!

Emma studied Environmental Science at Loyola University, New Orleans, and trained as an intern at the Institute of Environmental Communication (IEC). Emma is the 2019 Louisiana Wildlife Federation Conservation Communicator of The Year and is a member of Louisiana Master Naturalists of Greater New Orleans. She is currently employed by Louisiana Public Broadcasting and serves as a swamp tour guide !

Emma talks about her video production / conservation education work and how she saw change coming through the film-making process. The discussion includes sediment diversion and the jetty break-waters, and of how Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of indigenous Native Americans and the Shrimpers' local knowledge when coupled with technical quantifiable science resulted in great conservation synergy. Emma also talks about her film "In The Blind" and her learning about the duck hunting and waterfowl conservation connection. She went filming with Audubon ornithologists and Duck's Unlimited and hunters to bridge the understanding between non-hunters and hunters. While the song-birds populations seem to be sadly collapsing, there's better news about waterfowl. They have been doing better, thanks to the current conservation system. Emma also announces plans to be producing regular Naturalist podcasts called The Southern Naturalist! 
 
  • Loyola University New Orleans Institute for Environmental Communication (IEC) https://lucec.loyno.edu/institute-env...
  • Louisiana Wildlife Federation Conservation Awards https://lawildlifefed.org/what-we-do/...
  • LPB In The Blind press release https://www.lpb.org/press-releases/in...
  • In The Blind Trailer https://www.lpb.org/programs/in-the-b...
  • Finding Common Ground https://youtu.be/nFj2vhehgzk
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11/10/2021 0 Comments

Free! Free! We Set Them Free! ULM Launches Freshwater Turtle Hatchlings!

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Click here to view the video on LMNA Channel (Louisiana Master Naturalists Video Repository)

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Northeastern Louisiana is a Freshwater turtle biodiversity hotspot and West Monroe's Lazarre Park offers prime nesting conditions that are becoming exceedingly rare these days along The Ouachita River. Some of the Louisiana Master Naturalists, Park managers and interested members of the public joined Professor John Carr and his students from the ULM Biology Department at West Monroe's beautiful Lazarre Park on September 20th, 2021.

It was hazy and bright, perfect conditions for release of three freshwater turtle species back into their Ouachita river home. The Smooth Softshells (Apalone mutica) and the endemic Ouachita Map Turtles (Graptemys ouachitensis) are species of conservation concern. The Mississippi Map Turtles (Graptemys pseudogeographica kohni) are more widespread but nonetheless suffer from increasing predation and so their conservation is also important.

​Professor Carr raised these hatchlings from eggs that he and his students had formerly collected at Lazarre. Raising the hatchlings in incubators protects them from possible predation by foxes and raccoons. He is going to deliver a report of this project to the authorities and LDWF about this important habitat. For more information about Dr. Carr see 
https://webservices.ulm.edu/facultyac... and https://www.ulm.edu/~carr/

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11/10/2021 0 Comments

A Talk In The Park  —  Discovering West Monroe's Park System

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For details of our nature walk there and the inspiring presentation by West Monroe's Parks and Recreation Director, Stuart Hodnett, please click here for more on Wild Open Eye blog.
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Stuart Hodnett explaining the improvements in West Monroe's Park system
Sunday, September 26th, Louisiana Master Naturalists Northeast Nature Walk and Talk event in Kiroli Park was both fun and educational. Highlights:
  • New Highlands Park to open in early November, will have wetlands & native planting!
  • Planned Accessibility Boost! The main parks will all be connected by a cycle path!
  • Kiroli Park to have a new mountain bike trail!


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11/10/2021 0 Comments

Louisiana Lady  In 'Cancer Alley' Wins 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize!

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Official bio-pic of Sharon Lavigne from the Goldman Prize website

Read about Sharon Lavigne, prize-winning eco-defender
In September 2019, Sharon Lavigne, a special education teacher turned environmental justice advocate, successfully stopped the construction of a US$1.25 billion plastics manufacturing plant alongside the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana, thus preventing the further release of one million pounds of liquid hazardous waste annually, in a region already contending with known carcinogens and toxic air pollution. Lavigne mobilized grassroots opposition to the project, educated community members, and organized peaceful protests to successfully defend her predominantly African American community and the local wildlife. 
For more info on The Goldman Prize please see 
https://www.goldmanprize.org/
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