NWRC Weekly Highlights 4/7/2011

Weekly Highlights

MEMORANDUM

From: Gabrielle Boudreaux Bodin
Subject: Weekly Highlights, USGS National Wetlands Research Center, April 7, 2011

Departmental/Bureau News - Current

Architecture Students from Throughout the Region Tour NWRC: Approximately 50 architecture students attending the Spring 2011 South Quad Conference, “2011 Re-Vert,” toured the USGS National Wetlands Research Center on April 1, 2011. Participants of the conference, hosted by University of Louisiana at Lafayette's School of Architecture and Design and the LSU School of Architecture, are members of the American Institute of Architecture Students. (Linda Broussard; Lafayette, La.; 337-266-8692)
NWRC Scientists Participate in South Florida Climate Change Workshop: USGS National Wetlands Research Center scientists Karen McKee and Hardin Waddle attended an invitation-only workshop, “Influence of Sea Level Rise on Natural Systems of the Greater Everglades,” sponsored by the Center for Environmental Studies (CES) at Florida Atlantic University, the Florida Sea Grant College Program (FSG) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) held on the Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton campus April 5 – 7, 2011. The purpose of the workshop was to provide a common understanding of the changes in precipitation, hydrology and sea-level anticipated as a result of climate change in South Florida. McKee and Waddle participated in sessions to analyze monitoring efforts and identify needs in monitoring and processes. The findings of these experts will serve as the basis for updating the Conceptual Ecological Models and may be used to guide the development of future monitoring activities. (Karen McKee and Hardin Waddle; Lafayette, La.; 337-266-8500)
USGS Invasive Species Expert Participates in Caddo Lake Institute Community Meeting: USGS National Wetlands Research Center Forest and Wetlands Ecosystem Branch Chief Thomas Doyle and NWRC invasive species expert Randy Westbrooks participated in a Caddo Lake Institute Community Meeting on April 7, 2011, in Karnack, Texas, to discuss NWRC participation in future project work concerning aquatic invasive species control efforts, environmental flows work, paddle-trails efforts, and the planned re-establishment of the paddlefish in Caddo Lake. Doyle and Westbrooks were invited to participate, represent the NWRC, and to provide an NWRC overview on what efforts could be implemented to document and control Giant Salvinia and other invasive flora and fauna. (Thomas Doyle; Lafayette, La.; 337-266-8647)
NWRC Participates in ULL Earth Day Celebration: USGS National Wetlands Research Center staff hosted a booth at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Department of Renewable Resources Earth Day event on April 7, 2011. Educational booths by several organizations and agencies were designed to educate students about current environmental issues. (Gabrielle Bodin; Lafayette, La.; 337-266-8655)
NWRC and USGS Mississippi Water Science Center Plan Collaborative Carbon Sequestration Work in the Lower Mississippi River Basin: USGS National Wetlands Research Center Director Phil Turnipseed and USGS Mississippi Water Science Center (MS WSC) Investigations Chief Richard Rebich participated in a teleconference to discuss NWRC-MS WSC collaborative carbon sequestration work in the Lower Mississippi River basin. The USGS National Research Program has current research in CO2 injection work in the lower basin in which CO2 is being mined (the Ross Barnett Reservoir area in Mississippi has one of the largest areas of carbon dioxide fields in the country) and then injected into abandoned oil wells to push the oil out that was not pumped out decades ago. The NWRC has a significant carbon sequestration project in the lower basin, so Turnipseed and Rebich met to talk about possible collaboration in the near future. (Phil Turnipseed; Lafayette, La.; 337-266-8501)
USGS Geographers and Electrical Engineers Planning You-Tube Video to Disseminate Information on Wetland Loss in Coastal Louisiana: USGS National Wetlands Research Center Geographer Brady Couvillion, NWRC contractor and electrical engineer Ryan Twilley, USGS Marine and Coastal Geology Geographer John Barras, and NWRC Director Phil Turnipseed plan to finish a draft version of a You-Tube video to disseminate information on Coastal Louisiana wetland loss on April 8, 2011. The Louisiana coastal wetlands have lost almost 2000 square miles of land since the early part of the 20th Century. The video is planned to disseminate information about that loss in an easily understood instrument for use in conveying the processes of land loss to cooperators, stakeholders and the at-large public. The video will contain animations of Louisiana’s coastal land change through time, B-roll movies of estuarine and swamp systems, and interviews with relevant scientists. (Brady Couvillion; Lafayette, La.; 337-266-8501)

Press Inquiries/Media - Newspapers/magazines/wires, etc.

Reporter Marsh Sills of The Advocate, Acadiana Bureau interviewed USGS National Wetlands Research Center Branch Chiefs Thomas Doyle and Scott Wilson at the end of March 2011 for an article about NWRC’s “Forecast Mekong” project. (Thomas Doyle; Lafayette, La.; 337-266-8647)
Map aids Mekong planning (The Advocate, Acadiana Bureau; Lafayette, La.; April 4, 2011) “‘Forecast Mekong’ is a project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Wetlands Research Center and funded by the U.S. Department of State to help countries that border the river ‘develop smarter,’ said Scott Wilson chief of the research center’s Spatial Analysis Branch in Lafayette.” (Scott Wilson; Lafayette, La.; 337-266-8644)
A Vanishing Act (The Wildlife Professional; Spring 2011) “With roughly 40 percent of the Gulf’s wetlands, Louisiana has been hardest hit losing some 1,900 square miles of coastal lands from 1932 to 2000 (USGS 2003)…‘Wetlands are important because they provide habitat for a host of organisms,’ Susan Testroet-Bergeron, outreach coordinator for the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) program.” (Susan Testroet-Bergeron; Metairie, La.; 337-266-8623)

Return to Weekly Highlights Archive