Retired official’s Web site seeks coastal research

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 14, 2008 - Page: 4B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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After serving with the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities under five governors, Len Bahr recently retired as the director of the Governor’s Applied Coastal Science Program.

Ironically, Bahr said he hopes his retirement will give him a chance to get more involved in the ongoing discussion about Louisiana’s coastal restoration and protection efforts.

His vehicle for doing this is a new Web site he’s creating at http://www.lacoastpost.com.

“I’ve been so frustrated because I’ve kind of lost my voice in policy, science and coastal restoration,” Bahr said.

“I always thought, when I retired, I wanted to get that voice back.”

A way to do that came to him as he watched the 2008 presidential elections unfold.

He noticed a heightened level of discussion on the Internet through interactive postings, blogs and Web sites, he said.

That type of interactive discussion is something he has long thought was needed as the state worked toward developing action plans for coastal restoration and protection, he said.

So he says he started thinking about doing a Web site/blog/submitted article site on the Internet — he’s still tinkering with the format — where not only Bahr will write, but where scientists, experts and other interested parties could submit articles as well.

With help from an LSU biology student, the site went online Monday.

“Now I’m recruiting contributors,” Bahr said. “I really want to discuss issues that haven’t gotten much attention or have fallen through the cracks.”

Such issues include climate change, sea level rise, coastal forests and how the state should deal with logging in these areas, as well as the annual low-oxygen “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico and how that influences coastal restoration, he said.

Bahr also wants more discussion about how to better match  proposed coastal restoration solutions to the sheer size of coastal restoration problem, he said.