Grant funds coast studio

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 15, 2009 - Page: 4B

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A $300,000 grant from the America’s WETLAND Foundation and Chevron announced Tuesday at LSU will go toward starting the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio.

This studio will help bring together faculty, and eventually students, from different educational backgrounds to address specific coastal projects and issues, said Robert Twilley, associate vice chancellor of research and economic development at LSU.

In the years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, there have been several plans developed on coastal restoration, protection and rebuilding, he said.

The two biggest plans have been the state’s coastal restoration and protection master plan on wetland loss reduction and hurricane protection, with the second being the Louisiana Speaks plan which reviews the redevelopment of communities.

A problem with the two plans is they involve future visions and concepts, not specific paths forward on how a particular goal should be reached or how a project should be built, Twilley said.

“This is an effort, here at LSU, to bridge those two plans into one,” Twilley said. The overall goal of the studio will be putting the “vision” of these two plans into action, he said.

During the first year, the Coastal Sustainability Studio will bring together faculty from various parts of the campus including engineering, landscape architecture, law and hurricane research, Twilley said. The group, which currently involves 15 faculty members, is looking for a project to focus on and plans to select one this month, he said.

The project should have some level of funding from a state or federal program and have the interest of the parish and local government.

Public involvement in the work the LSU group will do is vital, Twilley said. He said the faculty members will set up an approach geared at reaching goals set in the state master plans, he said.

“We’re not going to be making any decisions. We’re going to offer alternatives,” Twilley said.

The project and partnerships with the selected parish will be set up by early September with a preliminary draft of a project plan ready by December, he said.

Garret Graves, director of Louisiana’s Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities, said the studio will help the state’s efforts.

“We’ve got to better understand and efficiently address the issues in that area,” Graves said. “We have two million people who live in coastal Louisiana.”