Louisiana's Featured Employees

The purpose and passion for conservation is shared among many. It is shared between NRCS employees and partners who help people help the land. And it is shared by the landowners with whom we work. Our passion is manifested through the benefits derived from stewardship of private lands—benefits we all enjoy, such as cleaner water and air, improved soils and abundant wildlife habitat.

Learn about our stories, the stories of conservation made possible through a shared purpose, a shared passion and a shared commitment to conservation.

Michael Trusclair is the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) District Conservationist in the Boutte Field Office, which provides services for six parishes; Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John, Orleans and Plaquemines. He graduated from Southern University in Baton Rouge in 1996 and received his Masters in Environmental Science in 2003. Michael is proud to be a part of the growing natural resource awareness movement that has pervaded the six parishes. “With this assistance of the NRCS and other agencies, the public is becoming more and more interested in our natural resources and just how important they are to this area,” said Michael. “We are needed more than ever down here and outreach, education and partnerships are key in natural resource awareness.”

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Brett joined NRCS in 1992 working at the Crowley Watershed as a WAE. By 1995, Brett moved down to Galliano where he worked at the Plant Materials Center (PMC) as a Biological Science Technician Aid until 2002. Brett’s main duty consisted of maintaining greenhouse facilities, to include plant weed care, building maintenance and organization. In 2002, Brett had the opportunity to apply for Mail Clerk at the State Office in Alexandria and he got the job.

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Brian Baiamonte may now be a district conservationist in Shreveport and acting district conservationist in Mansfield, but it wasn’t too long ago that Brian walked into an NRCS field office for the first time. “I got introduced to the agency by accident. I was taking a soil science class and needed a soil survey manual. I stopped into a field office and met a fellow student who was actually volunteering in that very field office,” said Brian. “He recommended volunteering and…next week I did.”

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Tania started working with the state soils section as an Earth Team Volunteer in 2005 until being hired as term employee in 2007. Her main duties included quality control of soil maps for SSURGO using GIS software and working on the Cameron-Creole watershed project (southwest Louisiana), digitizing water/land interfaces from ortho-imagery using various GIS tools. Tania was encouraged to develop new techniques to solve problems and complete tasks, which made the volunteer work very interesting and rewarding.

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