Local coastal restoration effort gets national media attention

A group of 18 journalists came to St. Mary Parish on April 29 to learn more about local efforts to restore Louisiana’s delicate coastline.
The group came to Louisiana with the Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources (IJNR), an organization dedicated to helping journalists better understand how human decisions impact resources, so they can do a better job of explaining complex relationships to their audiences.
The reporters were nearing the end of a week during which they focused on the Mississippi River, the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico. They came from as far away as Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and St. Louis, but several work in Mississippi and Louisiana. News outlets included the Christian Science Monitor, Public Radio International, the Times-Picayune, the Vicksburg Post, and National Public Radio affiliates in St. Louis, New Orleans, Des Moines, Iowa and Illinois.
Attendees went to the Burns Point boat launch to hear about the combined efforts of the St. Mary Soil & Water Conservation District, the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the State of Louisiana, the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Department and others to restore marsh grasses and slow the erosion of the state’s coastline.
IJNR was founded in 1995 in Missoula, Montana, and conducts weeklong field trips for journalists across North America. The organization took a group of journalists to explore the Upper Mississippi River in 2018; this was IJNR’s first time in Louisiana.