Hello, you're listening to Delta Dispatches. We're discussing Louisiana's coast, its people, wildlife and jobs. And why restoring it matters. I'm your host, Simone Maloz. I'm the campaign director for Restore the Mississippi River Delta. You can find all of our podcast episodes at deltadispatches.org and be sure that you're subscribed to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Before we get to our first guest, we have amazing new original music for our Delta Dispatches theme song. I hope you like it. We are very grateful for Bill Daniel at Wild Child Studios in New Orleans for composing something that seems very fitting to the personality of the show. Today we are excited to highlight some Delta voices, folks, friends, our colleagues that have been on the show before, but who are still working on the ground in coastal communities to do the important work is a great reminder of why we do what we do every day. So today we're gonna be joined by both Charles Allen and Arthur Johnson. lifetime environmental advocates and community organizers who work here in coastal Louisiana and their work has helped shape the next generation of environmental stewards. So, without further ado, we welcome to the show Charles Allen. Welcome Charles. Welcome back. Charles Allen.
It. Great. How are you doing, my friend?
It's like time hasn't even passed on Charles. So Charles is the Community Engagement Director for the Gulf Coast of the National Audubon Society. Charles, why don't you, why don't you reintroduce yourself to our guest? Talk a little bit about your Louisiana advocacy origin story.
Well, once again Charles Allen here. I presently serve as engagement director with what is now called Audubon Delta. It basically comprises all the center sanctuaries and chapters within the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. So basically all the Mississippi River Delta States.
I've been in that role now for a little over three years. Been at Audubon now for a little over seven years. In fact, seven years as of June 18th. And, um. So much my friend. I tell you, it's hard to believe we're gonna be knocking on a decade very soon. So we're getting punched to that door. It, it, it's shocking to me.
But of course, the work still remains. You and I both know we've run into some roadblocks with certain projects. We'll talk later about that, but it just further, uh, tells me, Simone, and I'm sure you feel the same way. That the advocacy work that we're involved in is so important and the advocacy work never ends.
And we have to be as creative as possible in that work, creative as possible in engaging people. I'm still happy to be in the mix with you.
So Charles, just to go back even a little further, you were one of the first, first coastal directors at the City of New Orleans, or talk about that because, some of that is so important to reminding folks that New Orleans is a coastal city, especially as we're approaching the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Tell us a little bit about some of those even earlier days working at the city and how important it was to have a place like New Orleans that's centered on culture, also recognize that it's a coastal city.
Absolutely. Well, lemme take it a little bit further back to, how I really got into this coastal work. I first got involved in such work going back to when I worked at Tulane University years ago. In fact, I worked at what was known as the Tulane Xavier Center for Bio Environmental Research. It was a longstanding academic and research partnership between Tulane and Xavier universities.
And going back to that early period after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Our center became a very strong academic and community voice for advancing research on the topic, but also serving as an advocate for implementing wetlands restoration projects. During that time, I was very active in my neighborhood association here in New Orleans, that being the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association in Lower ninth Ward, where I used to live, in fact, I was the vice president and president of that association, and the association for years had been very strong.
On a host of different environmental issues, namely in this case, the issue of coastal restoration. So as we get to 2007, I was approached by Garrett Graves back then, who used to work with, the newly elected governor at the time, Bobby Jindal. I was asked by Garrett to serve on the gubernatorial transition team that was focused on restoring the state's coastal wetlands.
And I served on that team. Then that dovetailed into serving on the Governor's Advisory Commission for Coastal Protection and Restoration, where I served for about four years. Then I was appointed as advisor, as you pointed out, to the former mayor of New Orleans Mitchell Andrew, when he was elected back in 2010.
In fact, it was Garrett who told me that he recommended me for that job to Mitch. And, and I served as director of what was then called the Office of Coastal and Environmental Affairs at City Hall here in New Orleans. Eventually that office evolved into what became and what is still known as the city's Office of Resilience and Sustainability.
So that kind of been a nutshell as how I got, you know, involved in this work. And then of course, I'm here at Audubon, been within the MRD family for all of these years and, and, and voila, I'm still at it.
I love all those invisible strings, right? But Charles, I think the evolution of your service and your work is so. It's just an example to so many folks about how important it is to get involved on any level, your neighborhood association, or by being part of a board, getting called into the service at the state level, et cetera. So we thank you for all those. Those years of work. Let's, let's look forward, well, I guess this is gonna, we're go, go back a little bit, but, but we'll also start to look forward. Some of our recent work together has centered around some of the HBCUs here in Louisiana and AUD bin's work there to form chapters. So, so let's talk a little bit about that work and then where you think that'll take you.
Sure. So as you point out, I got involved in that work going back to the year 2019. In fact, at Xavier University for a number of years, there's been an organization known as Zula, XULA. GEAUX green and go is spelled of course, GEA. , So XULA, GEAUX Green, been in existence for a number of years. Back in 2019, I had a colleague and a dear friend who was working there.
Her name was Tony Batiste and she was also serving as the university's director of Sustainability. And she was an advisor to XULA GEAUX Green. So I was telling her all about how. Audubon through the years has been establishing campus chapters at universities and in particular HBCUs. And she said, oh, Charles, I would love for you to come talk to the students about perhaps them becoming an Audubon chapter, if that's possible.
And I said, sure. So the conversation with the students was really easy. I told them about how Audubon's focus for years has been on birds bird habitat, but also advancing the cause of coastal restoration here in the state. And so when I say we could give you content, we could partner with you on projects, we can inform what you do in terms of your own community-based activities.
They loved it all. And, and so we got them into the formal application process to become a chapter. And then lo and behold, COVID hits the pandemic, which of course changed a lot of things for a lot of us, but their application went through it just meant that we couldn't come together face-to-face during that period of time.
Okay. But then of course the pandemic lifted. The students are still thriving, in fact. I'm happy to say I've now seen what, three to four. Presidents of the chapter, evolve, and go on. A few of those presidents have now graduated from Xavier and moved on to graduate in professional settings.
And so, and we also have a campus chapter at another HBCU in our Delta region. This one is at Russ College. Holly Springs, Mississippi, where we also have a, a sanctuary up there known as Strawberry Plains. And so yeah, the work is, is ever evolving in terms of establishing the CAP Campus chapters, in particular ones at HBCUs.
I'm also happy to say the students, three of them participated and attended Audubon's leadership conference in Montreal, Quebec
I love that
two weeks ago. It was an awesome moment to see them there. A proud moment for me and everyone so it, the work is flourishing.
Oh, that's so fantastic. I love that. And, and Charles, if I don't, if I hadn't said it, I'm sorry. I wanted to say it enough, but I have loved working with the Xavier group and we've had several interactions. They hosted a community conversation for us and important community conversation for us. But we've in interacted on a couple different levels.
I remember some of those Zoom meetings during COVID. And you even had students at Coastal Day this year. I had such a nice interaction with one of the students at lunch that day, and so thank you for showing them and, and showing up. We love that. I love that they were able to, to represent in Montreal. I know that that was an important leadership discussion for them and, and to kind of show them, you know, how serious Audubon is about the work that they do. So I love that.
Thank you. Lemme tell you, inspired also by the work that MRD does as well. So hats off to you in that regard.
Thank you. Thank you. Any future plans for any more HBCU chapters or That's always, you know, a growing conversation.
Yeah, in fact, we've been in conversations with Dillard University here in New Orleans for about a year now. So maybe as we go into the fall season, we may, uh, keep our fingers crossed and so forth. We may have a chapter established there, so we'll keep you posting on that.
Great. Great. Wanted to bring that up so we can manifest that, like say that in out loud and say that name too. So let's get a little bit back, you know, kind of Charles, to how we started some of this conversation. You know, I think for, for you and me both that our work is personal because it directly impacts the lives of our families and our friends.
How live here? I guess let, let's bring it back around to, you know, how can the state and what we do. work with communities. I, I think they've come a long way. Absolutely. Wanna acknowledge that over the 20 years of a coastal program, we saw great strides there, but, but the work is never done.
So I guess from your perspective, you know, how can the state better work with communities or, or how can anybody, right. Government. Other, other folks, that are planning to do things in these coastal communities. How, how can they work better to ensure that those communities are rooted from the very beginning in that planning process?
Sure. Well, you know, one of the things that I believe the state began doing well several years ago. And you might, you probably agree with me on this, Simone, is to begin working with nonprofits such as ours. Okay. The MRD coalition and all the many different environmental NGOs that make up our coalition.
Because we can be, and we've been good partners, tried to be very steadfast and coordinating and pulling in and introducing the CPRA, of course, the Coast Protection Restoration Authority, which represents the state. Pull them into conversations and events, community-based events that we put on out in the coastal communities where we work.
I think that partnership has worked well. It can always be improved and strengthened. Because look, we not only want this work to be science driven, that's a must, but we do want it to also be informed by the people who are out working in the fisheries or just, you know, living their lives. Very much inextricably tied to the coastal wetlands. So I think that partnership with NGOs has worked well and we need to continue to strengthen it and add more NGOs to the mix.
You know, Simone, we've brought to engagement with the state, uh, entities such as Arthur Johnson's nonprofit, the CSED, and, Healthy Community Services led by Dr. Angela Chalk. You know, so there, there, there are many more NGOs and nonprofits out here that we can help to bring to the table in that regard.
So, yeah, the partnership just needs to be strengthened.
Yeah. These are communities in which we live, in which we work, and we wanna bring those folks to the table, not just so that they can understand, but that they can voice their concerns. 
also 
talk about their experiences as well. And so I think our, our role every day in this nonprofit community is to make sure that we're serving as that liaison to ensure that it stays a two-way street and to make sure that it's never kind of off balance from one way to the other. I think about all these different groups that we work with and, um, even, even ones within our own coalition, they have other work that they do and, and, you know. Our friends at PC do amazing science work. Angela is a great example. Her whole other side of her work has something, you know, not to do with us.
And so we wanna help to make sure that we balance those conversations and that, you know, we're, we're keeping folks in the loop, but we're not, keeping them away from the discussion. And so that's something I think about a lot is. Is maintaining that two-way street all the time in communications too.
So, Charles, in, in the work that you do every day. You can hear concerns from folks you hear, you know, every day from folks living in these coastal communities.
Um, what do you hear the most? What are they most worried about, in terms of, of a coastal context when, when you're out doing this community work?
You know what I've been hearing a lot about, and I'm sure you've had a lot of conversations about this issue as well, and it's been in the news a lot lately
the issue of people no longer being able to afford the insurance costs of living wherever they're living? Okay. And we know a lot of people are going without insurance, okay?
They basically are living their lives wherever they're living them. With no insurance and very little money in the bank to support them in the event of some natural disaster. Okay. You know, a storm coming their way. That's frightening to me. I also have a bit of an insurance background. You know, here's another thing you now know.
And so I remember, I remember just my learning and my conversations and, and, and my coursework about how. Everything we do from our driving a vehicle, our bodies, you know, your teeth, your eyes, everything has to be insured. And I remember one of the teachers expressing that if you cannot insure it, don't use it.
Okay? Or if you don't have a lot of money in the bank, don't use it. And so that lesson, Simone, stays with me. Okay. Now we know. The state legislature had a special session some time ago on the insurance costs. You and I both know Simone. A lot more needs to be done in that regard. Okay? And this is also why, Simone, I have to just bring up the big elephant or gorilla in the room, which is why we gotta get projects like the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project going because we know from studies and scientific work.
The more we implement measures to address the issue of the vanishing wetlands, over time, that work pays off in terms of the lifestyle costs, insurance costs being one that will go down over time. So we gotta get that back on track. But yeah, that's what I'm hearing about and talking about a lot here lately, is I can't afford to live along in, you know, in, in this coastal realm where we live down here, people are moving out.
Yeah, and I couldn't agree with you more. That probably needs to be a highlight of a future podcast. It's not sexy or fun, but certainly insurance is where our coastal risk. Literally hits our pocketbooks. Right? You know, and, and all these measures that we're taking today to reduce our risk through the levee system or through natural defenses, you know, those are things that we should be doing to reduce our risk.
And we need to have a conversation about where that reality hits and, and how that's hurting folks. I think most folks know that I used to work for an organization called Restore or Retreat, and there's so many different aspects of that retreat, and some of that includes rising costs just to everyday living certainly rooted in things like insurance and so. You know, you may just say something like, Mid-Barataria is just some big projects that, that the ENG supported that, that, you know, certain groups oppose, but it was really about matching a solution to the size and scale of the problem. So I appreciate you saying that. So we're gonna thank you, Charles for coming on.
We're gonna wrap up our time here. We always have a fun question, but I know that you know our next guest pretty well too. So if there's anything you wanna say about Arthur before he has a chance to come on, we'd love to hear any stories Charles.
Lemme tell you, Arthur and I, we go back over 25 years. This is no lie.
need to hear a good Arthur story.
We go back to 1999, and that's 26 years ago. Okay.
it's like
And
like it's 1999. Charles Allen. Arthur Johnson. What were y'all up to back then?
lemme tell you, our friendship and our working relationship has involved so much through the years. He's a wonderful colleague, dear friend. He's also quite a chef, okay? And he has talked. Share with me some of his culinary skills, his delectable items. He makes fabulous drinks. I mean, Arthur is a Renaissance man.
Okay.
I
He can run. He runs nonprofits, raises, you know, money.
great cocktail.
It makes a great cocktail. I know I,
What
he'll have some good on the side for you to, uh, enjoy. I mean, he's a wonderful guy all around, I swear.
I love that. Well, a real fun question is, what is your favorite Louisiana food? It doesn't have to be New Orleans food. And I know that sounds really simple and kind of like a softball question, but Charles, you learn a lot from people. A lot from people where they're like, you know, I really don't like rice.
And you're like, you live in Louisiana. How could you not like rice? So what, what's your favorite Louisiana food?
So my favorite Louisiana dish, and this goes back to, my grandmother's, both sides of my family is a good seafood gumbo, okay. With some huge Gulf shrimp, okay? Some lump crab meat on dewy sausage or whatever sausage you so choose, you know, and these old women in my family would also drop a few small chicken drumsticks in the gumbo as well.
I love that.
Yeah,
who's gotta,
I love,
to find the drumstick?
that's right. I love some delicious seafood gumbo. Okay. I, in fact, I had some on Friday at Dookie Chase Restaurant in New Orleans. I know, but I love it
Oh. Alright. Charles. Potato salad. In or out? You are like you.
out. No potato salad in the gumbo. I.
That was another big I love that. I love that. Well, thank you Charles. I, I feel like it's just talking with you on the phone, catching up, seeing you in the office. So thank you. Thank you for a great conversation today.
Thank you for all the work that you've done. Thank you for your continued work and, and I look forward to joining you on some of that. Too. So, we'll continue that chat with Arthur. We're gonna, we're gonna ask him about the food and cocktails too. He won't get off on, on not answering those questions, so, thank you, Charles.
 
All right. Welcome back to the second half of Delta Dispatches. We have Arthur Johnson on. Arthur is the CEO of the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. Now, Arthur, you have a chance to defend yourself against those accusations of being a good cook and making great cocktails. Welcome. Welcome back. Welcome back to the show, Arthur. Thank you for coming on.
Great. Thank you, Simone. This is, of course, it's always a pleasure to be on your show and I'm glad to still be doing what we're doing, as we go into 2025, uh, to answer those questions about, yes, I do like to cook. It's something I've been doing, God knows for older than you are.
I'm pretty old
Let's put it that way. That's I've been doing it for a long time and I'm older, but yeah, I enjoy cooking, enjoy, you know, kind of entertaining friends and trying different experiments. I've been doing this, like I said, since I was a teenager, with my dad. He was a cook in the Navy and I kind of picked it up from him and moved on.
Uh, interesting. And like when I was a teenager, say about 4 14, 16 years old, I know my mother was cooking something for dinner and I said, oh, I know it was meatloaf. I wasn't a big Meatloaf fan, but it's like, could you take my hamburger and could you take that hamburger and just make me a hamburger instead of the meatloaf?
At that point, she said, well, I'll tell you what, you can just cook your own food
I think I'm with you, mom on that one. I love
and it.
Could you, could you season that up some there, mom or famous last words? Right.
I knew how to cook, man. So that was the other factor is like, just gimme the hamburger meat and I'll doctor it up myself and make my own burger. I don't, I just didn't care for the, the meatloaf, uh, consistency that way. So yeah, that was, that was the beginning, beginning of the end of cooked your own food that.
I love that. I love that. Well, Arthur, you've been on the show a couple times before and, and as you mentioned, like, we said this with Charles and, and, the first show we had Steve and Alisha on like all old friends here. Right. We're, we're easing back into Delta dispatchers. Are there feels like. No time has passed and, and also eons have passed as well too.
So why don't, why don't you tell us, a little bit about, well, I guess let's start, let's start the same way we started with Charles. Let's start back, you know, to your Coastal Louisiana story. You know, I know, CSED has a rich history in the, in the past two decades. So let's just remind folks about.
You know, your origin and, and your current work, and then, then we'll jump off from there.
Okay, great. Well, let's start with CSED. Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development is a community-based nonprofit that was created after Hurricane Katrina. And of course, as we're approaching 20 years after Katrina, and the reason why CSED was started to help the community, particularly in the Lower Ninth Ward, but also other coastal communities along the Gulf Coast who were impacted by the disaster and then impacted by manmade decisions on how to and on the efforts of recovery.
These coastal communities are ones that are mostly underserved communities, overburdened and communities of color in many cases, and many times left out of decision making process, In, relation that involve coastal restoration and things that involve, that are right there on their doorsteps. So, with CSED, um.
You know, we've taken the organization and continue to sway and adjust with all the things that have been going on in relation to coastal issues, climate change issues, whether it, whether issues or, it depends on who's in office, depends on what terms you can use that are. Politically correct, but nonetheless, it impacts people.
And for me, that's been a core of who I am as an individual. I'm originally from Washington DC but my roots are here in New Orleans as my mother was born here and on my relatives on my mom's side have been here. And so I first came to this wonderful state when I was 16 years old from Washington, DC to visit my grandmother who actually lived in the lower nine.
But at that time, this was in the late sixties. You know, I didn't do nothing about a lower nine or a community. I just knew I was going to New Orleans. I was going to visit my grandmother who would normally come visit us every year, ever since I can remember. Um, and so. Fast forward. Little did I know that I would be here in New Orleans, that I would be working in an organization in that same community and further being, hopefully a catalyst and a advocate for.
Coastal for people in the coastal areas and, and the coastal issues, whether they be weather issues or natural or manmade issues. Also, how those issues impact economic development, housing, really the quality of life issues for people here in Louisiana and particularly along the coastal communities.
I mean, Arthur, I guess just alone by the creation of CSED, you could say that, you know, even though that was a really traumatic time, but there were things that came out of it. There were good things that came up out of that. And CSED is one of those things. And reflecting back since the creation of CSED kind of born out of those disasters. how do you think we're doing today on, you know, leaders or layers of government or even communities doing work to prevent the next disaster or to be better prepared for inevitably when something happens to us? Do you think we're in a better position today?
Yeah, well, it's, uh, today's world in 2025 is interesting and challenging, a lot of the progress that we've made over the last 20 years, um, we're seeing them being challenged, but we also have seen the challenging of nature. Nature has changed. That's something that man cannot control no matter what they do, no matter how many levees they put up, or trying to change the direction of the Mississippi River, um, still requires the river's gonna do what it's going to do.
But we've also seen how that's impacted who we are as a society, not only from Louisiana, but also or Lower Ninth Ward, but also around this country and around this world globally. And so I think we're, in one instance, we're in a better position because we know more. We know we, we've experienced more and, and hopefully we take advantage of those opportunities to.
To address these possible potential disasters before they become truly like another Katrina. Hopefully we'll never have another situation like Katrina on that basis. I think the other thing though, unfortunately, is the politics is played a lot. As you well know, you know, the southeast part of this country, and particularly Louisiana.
Being oil and gas was never considered to be, would be an advocate or even be a melting pot as it relates to things dealing with natural , issues, climate change or weather issues. But, you know, we have emerged, in these last 20 years to play a role and be a voice for natural environment issues and in, in spite of, or in lieu of our, our economics.
It also has played a, a great role in economic gain and interest, you know, hydro, issues and, and how we've dealt with that. And, realizing that solar, for example, coming in place. You know, these are things that are sometimes left out of the conversation. Uh, these are the good things that are there, but it also means that we've changed sort of our direction. Uh, then.
20 plus years ago when no one wanted to talk about it. And it's more than just a party position. I think it's a quality of life issue. We've also seen over these last 20 years changes in hurricane movement coming off the Atlantic. Not just coming straight across Florida and into the Gulf anymore, but going up the East coast.
And that I think has also changed how our leadership, our national leadership, has viewed some of these issues of, disaster, um, tornadoes. We, we've coming across from the west to the east and hitting, you know, even hitting New Orleans on a couple of occasions and coming across, I think has really impacted the southeast part of our country as well.
That becomes a major threat. On that basis. So there's a lot of things there that I think, if we be honest, that we learned, and hopefully we'll continue to learn and use that information to put us in a better position to protect our communities, protect our quality of life for all Louisianas and the southeast part of this country.
Arthur this, this conversation's making me reflect on, you know, I. It's every community should have a CSED, right? You know, and, and especially, those that are facing, you know, extreme weather impacts or, or these climate, future climate risks. It's not just New Orleans. Right. New Orleans in so many ways was the first, but it should be that, that every community has a CSED to advocate, to educate and, and to do all those things.
So if, if somebody called you up from, Tampa or from one of the Carolinas and said, okay, Mr. Johnson, we wanna set up one of these groups here. What are one or two keys to success on, on how we could do that? What, what would your answer be?
Well, my answer would be, of course, you know, we're about humanity. And the humanity is not designated in any one particular community or state or even country as far as that's concerned. And I would say the key thing to, to make all of this work is community engagement. How do we get the community engaged?
But first they have to be, they have to be knowledgeable, they have to be educated, and then they begin to understand the importance of extreme weather situations, the importance of what that means. Not only just when it happens in recovery, but also before it happens. Preparation in, in anticipation of that and what that means about, again, our quality of life, how we live.
You know, we look in Louisiana, and Louisiana has some similarities to some of the coastal East Coast, southern states like South Carolina and North Carolina, uh, coming off the Atlantic Ocean, though we are not in the ocean, we're by the Gulf, but many similar, uh, types of landscapes, you know, canals and levees and things of that nature that are also there as well. Because to protect the water surges, we also have communities that are also based there. That it is important to be able to uh, how do we protect our, our people? Because if we don't, then. You know, those environmental issues such as land loss and subsidence and sea rise are just that.
But when they start to impact people, when they start to impact communities, impact our culture, our history, and how we how we live, which in impacts every aspect, including economics, jobs, education and recreation. Then it's important, you know, that we see a whole picture. So again, I would say holistically, community engagement is important and you have to look at it from a holistic perspective and achieve there and realize this is also not a quick fix.
This is not like, okay, we can put up a wall that's gonna keep us safe. I think that was the old way of doing things and we found that really doesn't work. So we have to look at more realistically, and we have to engage all people, not just. The political leaders or decision makers in, in that particular area, but also those who are most impacted because they have dealt with this and they're still around.
They realize how to, how to adjust their, you know, whereas housing, uh, how to adjust their times of employment and economic gain and, and what does that mean if there gotta be changes to be able to survive? And that's the whole point, surviving and living with nature because these are natural occurrences that are not new, but you know, we have more modern ways of how to address them now.
And we have those who have great minds. And, and the last thing I'll say is that we have to engage the next generation. We have to engage those who are younger, who, uh, who also get them interested and get them engaged and use that great knowledge that they possess to help, uh, us survive for, for the next generation.
The community is the constant, right? Arthur, like, you know, y'all, you know, the communities are there, you know, they don't have political terms. They've, they've been through the cycles, they've been through the things, and so you can't just go to them when you need something or when you want something. Um, and, and I think that's one of the most beautiful things about. CSED and and their history so far is that they are the constant, they're the ones doing the work day in and day out. And, and I wanna hit on what you said at the end, especially about the next generation. I think y'all have been so mindful and so intentional and trying to do that work and engage the next set of not just leaders, but advocates to make sure that that community constant stays going too.
You know, I, I know that y'all have y'all hands in a lot of exciting work and a lot of initiatives that you're working on. So I'd love for you to highlight a few things that y'all are doing right now at CSED that, that our listeners might not be aware of.
Okay. Well the first thing I'll talk about as we talk about next generation, we just finished our fifth year of our. Environmental research, internship for high school students. And we started that in, I guess our first class was 2021. And, we again, each year, up through this year where we just finished in the end of gen end of July and that point.
And so these young people are amazing. We've had our largest class ever over 20 students, and they do a five week summer session. And they've gone and they've looked at water management, water quality, hydrology, and the economics of the river and economics of, of water management. And that's kind of new in the economic part of it.
'cause you say, well, what does that have to do scientifically? What has a lot to do with the scientifically? Because we make our living basically off the water, off the Mississippi River, the decisions that are being made . The terminals that are being developed by the Port of New Orleans impact not only Louisiana, but impacts, the southeast part, impacts this whole country, impacts the whole world.
And, you know, and so, also it impacts where, you know, how we do housing, how we, how we do education . The, the, even our industries of fishing fisheries industries have changed simply because of how the river has changed and how natural and disasters has caused some of that import export issues and so forth, as well as new ideas and technology.
So that's important. I think the other thing that we're doing is to help our restoration of our community. We get involved and we've involved with. Several other nonprofits in relation to doing coastal restoration. We have a nursery that we rowing now, probably upward over a thousand, cypress, trees and grasses.
And then those, once they're mature enough, we take those and we plant them into. The central wetlands to help increase the number of trees and grasses and, and buffers that are there that were lost not only through Katrina, but oh, every year we're losing with different storms coming through. Those, those buffers and those buffers are important to protect our communities and our urban areas to protect our wetlands to our habitats and how we grow with that.
So we engage with large and not so large nonprofits, environmental nonprofits. The third thing I think that and with this is that we've also got very heavily engaged in policy making and understanding that policies are important for community and that our communities, our coastal communities, have to be at the table and not on the table as these decisions are being made.
And so we've been pushing that hard and continue to push that, that, you know. People in our, in our, in our community, not just the Lower Ninth Ward, but along that Gulf Coast, have ideas and interests and things to share that are important. And we've seen that change has changed in some of the master plan that the state is doing.
And even changes in politics, realize that some of these things doesn't matter whether you're this one or that one. The fact is it's going to be there and we're gonna have to deal with it. You know, we're right in the, the heart of hurricane season. But you know, these seasons. And so what happens is going to impact all of us.
Hopefully we'll escape again, but if not, we, you know, we'll have to deal with it. Uh, so these are a couple of things that we are focusing on as we continue to grow and realize we can't hit everything, but we do try to continue to grow and blend into that. And all these are laced around community engagement.
Getting our communities, our intergenerational, residents and, and community leaders, helping them understand through the internship the whole point of science. It's not just STEM education, but it's actually research where they're going in and, and making understanding the, the questions and making decisions And helping to change the thought process on that. So our future scientists and leaders in every aspect is important, whether it's in science or math, or whether it's in law or social work or education, any aspect, even art. Culture is important, particularly for us in our communities in Louisiana particularly.
So these are some of the things that we're working on and continue to work on. You know, we're chipping away at it. We're not trying to be a big conglomerate. We're just staying in our place and making a little bit of noise, you know? But if we throw a rock, we're not afraid. We're not hiding behind something.
We're gonna stand by what we say and, you know, and let it go where it goes.
love that the community's the constant, right? I think Arthur so
Yes.
people, that's one of the things I, I like about having this format or having this medium to invite. My friends to come on and, and to talk about the work that they do. I think people can lump all of us together and think, oh, I don't know.
They all kind of do the same things. And you and I both know to an organization, we can talk about the differences there and we have loved these partnerships that we formed because they're so complimentary. You know, you do things that. That we don't, you know, and, and, and we could bring issues to you to make sure you know that.
And, and I just think that's really complimentary. It, it kind of goes back to the conversation that we had with Charles earlier and making sure that we are having that dialogue between us, right? There's no gatekeeping, there's just a
Right.
and there's, and. relationship. Right. You know we have this ongoing partnership and being able to work together and, and that's been really complimentary and that has made the all of it so much stronger, right.
By having this diversity. As part of that, but yet everybody's been on the same page and mostly working together towards the same initiatives. so, Arthur, as we wrap up, you do, can you tell folks where they can find more information about CSED? Give us all the.com digits, all that stuff.
Definitely, well first of all, you can find us. We have our own website. It's www.sustainthenine.org. It's, you know, and, uh, there you can just get on our website and see some of the things that we're doing can reach out to us. Uh, for a phone number I can be reached at area code 5 0 4 4 2 1 9 6 4 3.
That's 5 0 4 4 2 1 9 6 4 3. And reach out to me and we can talk more about the things we're doing and how we can get engaged. Um. I think it's, you know, it's, it's so significant to share this and, and again, I agree with you Simone, that, you know, over the years now we've worked together in all types of capacities and so we know each other.
We, but we're standing the course and that's the sustainability is so unique of, of us who've been around here for more than a decade, sometimes two decades.
All right. Now we're raging ourselves.
But you were a baby. A while, but that those are important, I think how we engage within our communities and how we share with each other of what we're doing and how we work together.
Uh, urban Canopy is another aspect that Charles might have mentioned that we're involved with, the Audubon Society and with Charles in that and building that urban canopy of trees in our communities of that. Are not always given the opportunity to, to, uh, to build the canopy of trees, to help our communities, to help our, our air being fresher.
And also it helps in dealing with, uh. Disasters, whether it be to tornadoes or hurricanes, wind surge and things of that nature. So, but you know, but it's us looking after and for each other and towards each other. 'cause we know each other, we're, we're family. And I think that is, a unique situation that doesn't happen in many communities or in many, in many fields where, uh, we're all working together on that basis.
So I really appreciate being part of, um, part of your organization, part of. Uh, Delta dispatches and again, anytime. Love to come on and, and, and build in. Maybe even bring some of our interns who are now.
Yeah, we did that. I think we did that once Arthur. Right? We brought some interns on. That's a great callback. I love that. We would love to do that. Um, and I love that you just said that we, we are family. Um. are just like any family, we're sometimes we don't like each other, we don't get along.
But at the end of the day, we're so not us. Me and you we're good. We're good. Me and you are good. But, but that we're connected and, and we're connected to this place and, and the people and the things that we love about it too. So, Arthur, I can't let you go. You gotta answer the fun question, you know, the rules . Charles called you out for being a good cook. What's, what's your favorite thing to cook? It could be something new. It could be something that you cook for, for every get together. But what, what's something that you love to cook? I,
Uh, well, I, I like to grill. I do a lot of grilling. Um, and I can grill just about anything actually. This, uh, you know, there's the usual. Yeah, I'm up to the challenge. Hey, you know, we, we have to, we'll have to get together and because it's been a while since this, uh.
I'm happy for you to, to cook off, have a cook off just for me. That sounds great.
Uh, so there's one dish that I started to do, and this is not a grilling dish, but it is a red fish with a, a stuffed crab meat base into it. And, um, my wife loves it because, well, I do all the cooking around the house. She.
I,
She only cooks on holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas for the most part. And she makes the mean gumbo,
it.
you know, but everything else I've done for over 25 years on that basis.
But that, that fish dish she really loves. Um, again, it's, it's, it's delectable. It's, it's light enough, but it also flavor and it's indication of New Orleans. It's putting things together. Um, you know, our natural. From our natural waters and environment and the flavors that come from that, you know? And of course it wouldn't be New Orleans if it wasn't seafood.
It's gotta be seafood. And that, the other other thing is that I do boiling. So you know, we just finished crawfish season, boiling crawfish, but now we know crabs and shrimp and so forth. So that's another aspect that I, I do. And of course, nothing like mixing all of that together with a great cocktail.
Tying it
And so.
And, uh, there's nothing like, you know, so we, uh, my latest, uh, cocktail is one that involves, uh, I don't Beyonce's, uh, bourbon
Oh.
and involved in that. So that's, that's, so we'll have to get together and, and try that out.
so, two things. One, we record this right before lunch, so you, you did me an absolute disservice. I'm gonna have something, you know, sandwich for lunch and just be thinking about a red fish and Beyonce
Right. Yes. Hey, there you go. That sounds like a, sounds like a great plan right there.
Yes. It sounds like there's, um, time for, we need to, um, do some, um, we need some team building. Arthur, we need to, we need
absolutely.
team around the grill or the boiling pot
Yes. I come over CS Center in a while and.
That is true. Yes. I would love to. I would love to. Well, thank you Arthur. We wanna thank Charles for joining us today on Delta Dispatches. Thank you for your, as you mentioned, decades of work to age, both of us and our work. Together, um, uh, but for the East coastal communities, um, a spoiler alert is next week we're going to be talking about the Coastal Master plan. It sometimes hurts my brain to think about that. We're already working on the 2029 Coastal Master Plan. Uh, but we wanna talk about how communities and, and people. Bull can get engaged on, on what can seem like a, a kind of heavy process. But, um, while it's science-based, it is in, you know, in service of the protection of those coastal communities.
So we'll talk about that on the next show. We're also going to talk about the 20th anniversary of hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. So those are some things we'll talk about on some future episodes. Well, thank you Arthur, and thanks everybody else. For tuning in. Don't forget to like rate and subscribe and share Delta Dispatches podcast. Um, until next week, see you later alligator. And after a while, crocodile.