St. Bernard Parish

Advisory Leadership Council Meeting Minutes

April 7, 2010

St. Bernard Parish Council Meeting Room

Present: Wayne Burgess, LSU AgCenter 4-H Agent; Lauren Faust; LSU AgCenter 4-H Agent; Maxine Wilson, LVFC member; Guy Robichaux; Don Duplantier, Volunteer; Lisa Smith; Melanie Maas; William “Billy” Schehr; Polly Boudreaux; Sophie Boudreaux; Gidget McDougal, Tourism Director; Crystal Tucker, and Patricia Fleming

Wayne Burgess opened the meeting by thanking everyone for coming to the meeting. An issue that came out of previous meeting was to be involved in coastal restoration.Wayne reviewed what has been accomplished regarding coastal restoration. With the help of out-of-town volunteers (college students from all over the United States) and youth from local schools more than 200,000 trees have been planted.

Lisa Smith wrote a grant to purchase 35,000 trees (Tupelo, Bald Cypress). It was pointed out that the two year seedlings planted now in 5 to 7 years the trees should be 15 feet tall. Mr. Tony Fernandez furnished facilities, a wagon to haul volunteers and trees which were planted from January through March 2010. Volunteers will continue to plant trees.

Issues Discussed:

1.Cypress Tree Project

a. Grant and Fundraiser

b. Volunteers

2. Education about Wetlands

a.ChalmetteHigh School Students

b. Volunteers

3. Civic Involvement in Planting

a. AWCC Planting

4. Create Awareness with non-local groups

a Educate people outside of the Parish and South Louisiana about the importance of restoring wetlands.

b. The general public did not have any idea about MRGO.

c. Invite groups from other parishes to help with tree plantings

5. Develop Wetlands Tour

a. Have Parish Tourism Department contact Bus Companies involved in Tours.

6. Sewing Education/Enrichment

a. LVFC Members volunteering to work with schools to teach the basics of sewing, etc.

7. Gardening/School Gardens,CommunityGardens

8. LSU AgCenter Budget Update

Points covered in discussion on Cypress Tree Seedling Plantings:

  • It was pointed out that a program or plan with information regarding the importance of coastal restoration needs to be developed to be provided to volunteers prior to the plantings. The need for a CD with overview or Power Point explaining what happened to the wetlands to be created to give volunteers a reason why they were here.
  • A question was asked if anyone involved with the Master Gardener program had been approached to get them involved in the tree planting project. As of this date, no one has been contacted.
  • Wayne reported he worked with at least 1,000 volunteers in a month and a half. He pointed out that young people from colleges from all over the country came to St. Bernard to help with the plantings. One group came from Ottawa, Canada. They rode 24 hours on a bus, worked for threes days and rode a bus 24 hours back to Ottawa. Each student paid their own way which was $800. They raised money to come down here to work.
  • It was suggested that the community and neighborhoods need to get involved with the tree plantings for coastal restoration.
  • There was a lengthy discussion on how do you get neighborhoods and people living in the community involved in helping with wetlands restoration and whether there was any documentation showing how volunteers from outside the community came to St. Bernard and helped with wetlands restoration, etc. Question was asked if the plantings were being documented by photos. Mr. Burgess explained that some pictures were taken by ChalmetteHigh School, 4-H clubs that attended, the AgCenter & Parish Government. But probably the bulk of them were taken by the volunteers.
  • 10 cypress tree planting trips were made with 300-350 youth from ChalmetteHigh School. It was suggested articles explaining efforts being carried out by youth regarding restoring of wetlands should be written in magazines and Times Picayune.
  • Cypress tree plantings will continue.