For people living in southeast Louisiana, Lake Pontchartrain is an easily recognizable landmark. For some people, it is the bothersome body of water they travel across every day and for others it is a place to fish or swim. For a number of scientists, it is a place where research is being done to help restore and revive the lake and coast.
The Basics of the Basin 2011 Conference was held over three days at Southeastern to celebrate the research being done in and around the lake. The conference took place from Oct. 27 to Oct. 29 and hosted scientists and guest speakers who shared a common goal of restoring and preserving the Pontchartrain Basin.
“This is to just let everybody know what the highlights of the most recent research around the Lake Pontchartrain Basin are showing,” said Dr. Robert Moreau, director of Southeastern’s Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station in Manchac. “That’s what we want to promote, what’s going on in the basin, what are the basics of the basin.”
According to Moreau, the conference is held every two years and gathers researchers from a pool of those studying the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. This includes people from surrounding universities, such as Louisiana State University, Tulane University, the University of New Orleans (UNO) and Southeastern. The conference is generally held on the campus of UNO, but this year Southeastern hosted the event to celebrate ten years of research by Southeastern’s Pontchartrain Basin Research Program (PBRP).
“We offered to do it this year because our PBRP is kind of concluding the last 10 years of its works and, also, UNO’s Pontchartrain Restoration Program (PRP) is concluding its 10 years of funded work,” Moreau said. “We thought we would have a big blowout conference commemorating the 10 years of both of those programs.”
The conference allowed all day participants to attend a number of sessions presenting the research that is taking place around the Lake Pontchartrain Basin.
On the first day of the conference, participants were treated to a speech by U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-La.). According to Moreau, Vitter was chosen to speak because of his role in securing funds for the projects and research being highlighted at this conference.
“Vitter has been very instrumental in helping provide funding for research and education in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin,” said Moreau. “He’s had a lot of good programs that he’s started that have helped provide funds to do a lot of the work we do so he is a natural guy for us to want to have come in and speak.”
In his keynote speech, Vitter spoke about the importance of the research being done on the Lake Pontchartrain Basin and the overall contributions he has made towards the restoration and preservation of the Louisiana coast.
“We need to continue with all of the research and other works represented in this room and with all of the ongoing restoration work,” said Vitter during his speech.
Other keynote speakers at the conference included Dr. Sam Hyde, director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and professor of history at Southeastern, and Mark Schleifstein, an environmental reporter at The Times Picayune who co-authored the book “Path to Destruction – The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms.”
According to the PBRP website, the program is an extension of the College of Science and Technology at Southeastern. It was founded in 2001 and has worked to restore and sustain cypress ecosystems of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin.
For more information regarding the conference or the research done at the PBRP, visit the PBRP’s website at www2.selu.edu/orgs/pbrp.