Breaux Act Newsflash - James Carville to Deliver Keynote Address at Banquet
Honoring Louisiana's Coastal Stewards
JAMES CARVILLE TO DELIVER KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT BANQUET HONORING LOUISIANA'S
COASTAL STEWARDS
Baton Rouge (May 11, 2010) - On Wednesday June 9, 2010, the Coalition to
Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) will recognize nine award recipients as
outstanding stewards of Louisiana's coast at the fifteenth annual Coastal
Stewardship Awards Banquet to be held at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol
Center, Baton Rouge, LA beginning at 6:00 p.m. We are pleased to have
James Carville as the evening's keynote speaker.
Award winners to be honored at the banquet include Mr. Edgar F. Veillon,
the 2010 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award and Mr. Sherrill
Sagrera recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award. Coastal
Stewardship Awards will be presented to Ms. Anna Evangeline Normand, Dr.
Barry Kohl, Ms. Dianne Lindstedt, Mr. O'Neil Malbrough, Mr. Gary Fine and
Entergy Corporation. Ms. Elizabeth Goodwin Welborn will receive a Friend
of the Coalition Award.
The Coastal Stewardship Awards program is sponsored by CRCL to recognize
significant contributions by an individual or group in the effort to save
Louisiana's coast. This year's recipients have demonstrated an
exceptional commitment to the preservation and restoration of Louisiana's
fragile coast, and we congratulate them for their outstanding
accomplishments.
At a time when many residents in South Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast
are struggling to respond to the BP Oil Spill, we believe the Coastal
Stewardship Awards Banquet is an appropriate time to draw attention to the
challenges facing our coast and to celebrate the tremendous contributions
that individuals and organizations can make to restoring and protecting
coastal Louisiana.
CRCL is pleased to announce that James Carville, America's best-known
political consultant, will be the keynote speaker at the 2010 Coastal
Stewardship Awards Banquet. A Louisiana native, Mr. Carville returned home
in 2008 and has been a strong voice for coastal protection and restoration
on a national scale. Mr. Carville's experience includes a long list of
electoral successes, a knack for steering overlooked campaigns to
unexpected landslide victories and for re-making political underdogs into
upset winners.
James Carville is an author, actor, producer, talk-show host, speaker and
restaurateur. Most recently, Carville is hosting Sirius XM radio's "60/20
Sports" show with Luke Russert, and is a frequent political commentator
and contributor on CNN. He also serves as a Professor of Practice at
Tulane University in New Orleans, where he lives with his wife Mary
Matalin and their two daughters.
Mr. Edgar Veillon is the recipient of the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mr. Veillon has been an advocate for coastal restoration for over fifty
years. His passion for the coast began as a sportsman in the Louisiana
coastal marshes in the 1950's. His dedication and passion have grown over
the years and resulted in his participation in many coastal protection
organizations, in addition to lending his time and expertise to local and
state governments. Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Veillon is a Life
Member and past president of the Jefferson Rod and Gun Club, a founder and
charter member of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana where he
continues to serve on the Executive Committee, a Life Member and past
president of the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, a member of the board of
directors of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, and a long standing
member of the National Wildlife Federation. Additionally, Mr. Veillon has
long been affiliated with Save the Atchafalaya Basin, Inc., the
Atchafalaya Information Bureau, Ducks Unlimited and the National Rifle
Association. Mr. Veillon is truly a remarkable conservationist, selfless
steward and gracious servant of charitable and conservation organizations.
Mr. Sherrill Sagrera, will receive the Coalition's 2010 Distinguished
Achievement Award. Mr. Sagrera, a landowner in southern Vermilion
Parish, began working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS) in the early 1990's to protect emergent marsh at Cheniere au Tigre.
He worked tirelessly to get a Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and
Restoration Act (CWPPRA) project funded at Cheniere au Tigre to protect
thousands of acres of wetlands. Due to his continued persistence, a
hurricane protection plan has been developed for Vermilion Parish. Mr.
Sagrera was recently selected to serve as the Vice Chairman of the newly
formed Vermilion parish Coastal Protection and Restoration Committee. He
also serves as Vice Chairman of the Vermilion Soil and Water Conservation
District and as chairman of the Louisiana Association of Conservation
Districts' Coastal Resources Committee. He is an active member of the
Acadiana Resource Conservation and Development Council and the Executive
Committee of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.
In addition to the Lifetime and Distinguished Achievement Awards, six
individuals or groups will be presented with 2010 Coastal Stewardship
Awards.
Ms. Anna Evangeline Normand, a junior at Louisiana State University, used
her passion for coastal restoration to create the Louisiana Marsh
University, an education initiative targeting university students. Modeled
after the 4-H program Marsh Maneuvers, Louisiana Marsh University is a
three-day event that includes classroom sessions, presentations and a
restoration planting along the beach of Grand Isle. Working with a small
budget, Anna coordinated speakers, sponsors and housing and food for
students from across the state and country. Through Louisiana Marsh
University, Anna gave students an opportunity to learn and experience the
coast in a very real and impactful way.
Dr. Barry Kohl is a retired geologist who, upon retirement, dedicated his
life to environmental problems in south Louisiana. Dr. Kohl has led the
efforts to address mercury contamination in local soils, canals, bayous
and rivers. He has challenged the current standards on the types of
sampling and analyses conducted for routine environmental assessments. He
worked with the Louisiana Pontchartrain Basin Foundation to establish new
protocols for soil sampling which have since been adopted by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. Dr. Kohl is a long-standing volunteer with the Sierra
Club's Delta Chapter and has served in a multitude of capacities on the
chapter's executive committee. He is founding and acting president of the
Louisiana Audubon Council and serves as an avid mentor, volunteer and
expert to many other community and environmental groups.
Ms. Dianne Lindstedt is the marine education coordinator for the Louisiana
Office of Sea Grant Development. Through her work in education, namely
Ocean Commotion and Native Fish in the Classroom, Ms. Lindstedt works to
make abstract wetland topics tangible, real and concrete in the minds of
students. Each year through Ocean Commotion she organizes volunteers and
arranges with local schools for more than 2,000 elementary and middle
school students to visit LSU and learn about the value and function of our
coastal environment. She annually organizes the wetlands education tent
at Baton Rouge Earth Day, an event that attracts more than 40,000 people.
She currently participates in the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Environmental
Education Network (GOMA), the Governor's Environmental Education
Commission, the Southern Association of Marine Educators (SAME), the Gulf
Coast Ocean Observing System (GCOOS), the Baton Rouge Earth Day planning
committee and the Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary Program's (BTNEP)
Education Action Plan Team.
Mr. O'Neil Malbrough currently serves as Central Gulf District Manager for
the Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure Group where he focuses his work
on projects specifically designed to combat Louisiana's coastal erosion
problems. After Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Malbrough was a key team member
involved in the compilation of the State's Comprehensive Master Plan for a
Sustainable Coast. He was instrumental in the development of the Coast
Builders Coalition, a non-profit association formed to bring together
leaders from the private and public sectors to provide leadership and best
practices in the implementation of a comprehensive restoration and
protection system for south Louisiana. Mr. Malbrough champions the use of
dedicated dredging of the Mississippi River sediment to restore
Louisiana's coast. Working with Jefferson Parish he developed a project
to pump sediment from the Mississippi River to restore marsh in the
vicinity of Bayou Dupont. That project was approved for funding by CWPPRA
and moved to construction this year.
Mr. Gary Fine, retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS), continues to play an active role in the coastal wetland protection
and restoration community. While with NRCS, Mr. Fine worked to advance
effective plant science technology to address critical wetland
conservation needs and actively promoted the use of plant materials to
solve specific coastal wetland conservation problems. Currently, Mr. Fine
works with the coastal soil and water conservation districts on all of the
Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration (OCPR) and NRCS/SWCD marsh
re-vegetation program projects on the southeast side of the state. He
worked with the City of New Orleans' Office of Environmental Affairs to
find cost effective methods to prevent further erosion of our coastline.
He is also the native plants farm manager at Nicholls State University for
the Louisiana Native Plant Initiative, where he has been instrumental in
the development of native plant material for restoration of Louisiana's
coastal habitats.
Entergy Corporation, through their Environmental Strategy initiative, has
partnered with Restore America's Estuaries and the Coalition to Restore
Coastal Louisiana to accomplish on-the ground restoration. This
restoration partnership seeks to involve local and state residents to
reestablish habitat and protect Louisiana's coastline. The key elements
of the project are to restore coastal forests and marsh habitats, engage
volunteers with hands on community outreach and involvement and engage
Entergy employees in environmental leadership. Over the four year
partnership, Entergy has funded over $219,000 in coastal restoration
projects and worked with over 800 volunteers to plant over 5,600 trees and
marsh plants across coastal Louisiana.
Ms. Elizabeth Goodman Welborn will be receiving a 2010 Friend of the
Coalition Award. Ms. Welborn founded For the Bayou, a San Francisco, CA
based non-profit that hosts events across the Bay Area that showcase
Louisiana musicians, chefs and artists. Proceeds from these events are
given directly back to groups in Louisiana to help fund coastal
restoration efforts such as marsh plantings and other projects.
The Coastal Stewardship Awards program will take place on the second
evening of the State of the Coast Conference. Conference attendees are
welcome to attend, but must register and pay separately for the Coastal
Stewardship Awards. The program begins at 6:00 p.m. and is open to
members of the public who have reserved tickets in advance. The evening
consists of a reception, banquet dinner and keynote address followed by
the presentation of awards. Tickets are available for $50 per person. For
reservations or additional information please contact the Coalition to
Restore Coastal Louisiana at 225-767-4181 or visit our website at
www.crcl.org.