Enthusiasm runs high as LaNERR selection approaches

A selection panel’s recommendation to the governor for the location of a new estuary research reserve could come as early as Wednesday.
And if enthusiasm counts, the Atchafalaya Basin has an edge.
That was the word from a meeting Friday in Morgan City, put together by the St. Mary Excel citizens group.
An Atchafalaya Basin site for a National Estuarine Research Reserve has drawn more than 400 letters of support, said Dr. Brian Roberts, who chairs the Atchafalaya site committee. The Atchafalaya site is one of the final three sites under consideration, and the Basin drew more letters of support than the other two, Pontchartrain and Barataria, combined.
The town hall meeting in Morgan City offering information on the program and the Atchafalaya site also drew significantly more people than town halls for either of the other two sites.
At Friday’s meeting, Roberts paused his presentation and said the temperature seemed warm. He pulled off his outer shirt to reveal a blue-and-white T-shirt used by proponents to promote the Basin as a NERR site.
The National Estuarine Research Reserve program is administered through the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration. They’re devoted to “long-term stewardship, research, education and training.” More than 30 such reserves stretch down the East Coast and around Florida to the Gulf Coast to Texas — except Louisiana, which has none.
Other NERRs are located on the Pacific coast.
The reserves are composed of some combination of public and private land that can be used to study estuaries, loosely defined as the ecosystem where a river meets the sea.
As the name suggests, the reserves are useful for researching estuary zones. But, proponents say, NERRs also offer opportunities for educational field trips for school children, as well as for tourism.
NOAA provides 70% of funding for the reserve’s operation, plus coordination and guidance. The state pays the rest.
The shape the reserve takes varies from site to site. Possible infrastructure improvements include visitor centers and trails for walking or biking.
The Eastern Research Group performed an economic impact study on three Florida NERRs and one in Oregan.
The study found that the Florida NERRs created 512-664 jobs each at the NERRs and their partner organizations.
The annual economic impact was $46 million-$57 million each.
In Oregon, the NERR generated 65 jobs and $6.1 million in economic impact.
What a reserve doesn’t do, Roberts said, is impose new federal regulations on the way land is used.
“They’re not coming in and saying you have to change the way you manage your lands,” Roberts said. “That’s important.”
NERR sites are supposed to bring unique environmental elements to the table, and the Atchafalaya comes closer than the other proposed sites to meeting that standard.
And more than 3 million people live within 100 miles of the Atchafalaya site. More than 800 schools are within field-trip driving distance.
Gov. John Bel Edwards will receive a recommendation on a NERR site from a four-member panel: Harry Vorhoff and Russell Caffery of the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities, and Gregory Grandy and Bren Haase of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
The panel has committed to making a recommendation by June 1, Roberts said.