​[00:00:00] ​ Hello, you're listening to Delta Dispatches. We are 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 subscribed to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, and whereever. You get your podcast today on Delta Dispatches. We're gonna check in on my old stomping grounds, the Bayou Region, Jennifer Armand will join us today from the Bayou Community Foundation, which was created in 2012 by a group of business leaders and philanthropists from Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, and a frequent former guests will be up first, Bren Haas. From the Barataria Terrebone National Estuary Program will join us from his perch at the Barataria Terrebone National Estuary Program's, new offices at the Nichols Coastal Center to talk about the good work happening there. Let's get started. Get Bren. Welcome back to the show, Hey Simone. Thanks for having me again. [00:01:30] Bren. This is the sixth time that you've been on Delta Dispatches. You hold the record for most appearances. If we were on Saturday Night Live, I think you get a cool jacket or something like that. We don't have swag like that, but welcome back. Well, thanks. It's good to be here again. I must I must have enjoyed it. Uh, this is my sixth time. I had no idea. It had been there many times actually. That's interesting. Thanks. You clearly had a lot to say. We also, uh, had a lot of fun questions to ask you. So still have more of those. Now that we're back with Delta Dispatches, we haven't let go of that idea about getting to know our guests a little bit better. but this I think is the first time you'll be on the show as the program director for. Bit np and it's, I guess it's okay that we call it that. So why don't, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself and about your role at Bit np. Sure. So first off, BTNEP is, or B-T-N-E-P stands for the Aria Terrebone National Estuary Program. Just about the middle of last year, of 2024, I was tapped to be the, be the director of that program, and lead it into the, into the coming years. And so I'm very excited to be doing that. The, the Barataria Terrebone National Estuary Program is one of. 28 national estuaries across the country. Those are estuaries that are obviously of, of national significance that're designated by the Environmental Protection Agency. It's a, a federal, state and private [00:03:00] partnership, sort of a P three. We hear a lot about those lately, locally here in Louisiana and the others across the country are, are set up generally in the same way. Our mission is, is very simple. It's to preserve and, and protect and restore the estuary itself. All really all facets of the, of the estuary from habitat to culture to, the economy. You name it. We're involved in it and trying to make this, a better place to live, in a place that we can live in for, for longer than perhaps we would otherwise. Bren, you, I recently saw on the gram, this very beautiful video that I'm sure Nikki Rio had her fingerprints all over that talked about, B-T-N-E-P and talked about it in such a really beautiful way. This is the only estuary program in Louisiana, if I'm correct about that. And then it. I think it's one of the only deltas. Is that right? It's not, it's not the only delta, but it is one of the only deltas. You're right, there's, there are a few others, across the country. But yeah, we are the only National ES history program in the state. There are only, a few others, in fact, in on, on the Gulf Coast, and again, only 28, nationwide. Yeah, that video was, was good and you're right, Nikki was, was, uh, definitely had her fingerprints on that. But, we're really launching a new campaign right now called, estuary Explorer and that was kind of the kickoff or introduction, I guess, to that campaign, really to make an effort to get out into the estuary. We, as you mentioned, are here on Nichols campus. Our offices are in Thibodaux. We've very much, I think in the past, been seen as a, as a Bayou community [00:04:30] organization, and we are in fact, and we're very proud of that. But the estuaries composed of 16 parishes in southeast Louisiana. It's basically all of the land. Between the Atchafalaya River and the Mississippi River, it goes up into Point Coupee Parish South along the Atchafalaya River to St. Mary Parish, over to the East to Plaquemines Parish, and then back up the river through all the river parishes, back up again, west Baton Rouge and Point Coupee. And so, um, we're really trying to make an effort to make folks who are in other parts of the estuary are aware of, of us, aware of what we do, of what we can bring to their communities, to their parishes, to help, again, preserve and, and protect this estuary. I feel like I failed the first part of that quiz about it being the only delta, but I think I remember 4 million acres. Is that right? 16. Six. Yeah. 16 Point. Yes. And then I loved, uh, point Coupee to Point Fourchon, right? Port Fourchon and Point Fourchon is the the camp, right? The camp establishment right next door. So Bren, you, and all the, the work that you've done, you have a long history of working at the Department of Natural Resources and then of course the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authorities. So you've been around bitmap for. A long time in these previous roles, but what surprised you about the program when you first started as director? Yeah, really the, the breadth of, projects that we're involved in, I think surprised me. I, you know, at, in my time at, at CPRA, that's really where I spent [00:06:00] probably the majority of my career. They were, they were really focused, obviously on Hurricane Protect, two things, hurricane protection, hurricane risk reduction, and restoration. And while we're focused on those things at BTNEP, there are lots of other things that we're involved in that have been really, interesting and exciting, I guess for me to kind of branch out into. There are things that have interested me in the past, but I haven't necessarily you know, worked in those arenas, all that explicitly, I guess. So, water quality is huge. That's really the foundation of the National Estuary Program. I mentioned we're a non-regulatory program. I didn't mention non-regulatory earlier, but we're a non-regulatory program of the EPA that partners with the state and, and private entities and stakeholders within the estuary. But to improve water quality because that's obviously we need, we all need water to survive. Our drinking water comes in this region primarily from Bayou Lafourche. A lot of it comes from the Mississippi River. And so ensuring that the quality of that water that we ultimately will drink. Uh, is, is good, is certainly very important. But while at CPRA we did a lot of, of restoration of habitat and kind of the mantra is, you know, if you build it, they'll come, you build a habitat, you'll have wildlife and, and fish and so forth, utilizing those habitats. We've got a little bit more of a nuance and kind of niched approach here at at BTNEP where we're, uh, monitoring some of those restoration projects, for example, that CPRA bills to see how shorebirds are using them. Uh, are there food, food sources available for the wildlife that we think and, and we hope will use those restored habitats? Is it, is it actually happening? And that information is able to be fed back into the planning and design of projects [00:07:30] that will happen in the future. And so that's to make them, you know, better projects and hopefully more successful in the future. And so that's been really rewarding and, and you know, a question that's always been in the back of my mind as I've been involved in some of these large scale restoration projects in the past. And so it's nice to assist with those and looking at kind of diving into an aspect of those restoration projects and hoping to make them and the overall coastal program in Louisiana better. Yeah, that's a really great reminder about the water quality. I remember after Hurricane Gustav, right, they had the Bayou got clogged and they had a terrible time with drinking water right after that. And, and I remember, BTNEP being, you know, kind of at the center of, of that discussion and the education around how important BA you Lafourche is to the 300,000 people that. That drink, get their drinking water from there. And that really probably was the kickoff to, you know, all the work that's happened today on Bayou Lafourche with, you know, um, you know, kind of clearing out the bayou and trying to improve water flow, the pump station, those kinds of things too. So, that was, that was a good reminder. Jog my memory on that a little bit. Yeah, yeah. We do work, as mentioned in Bayou Lafourche, but also Bayou Falls. We're expanding into Bayou Terrebone. We're hoping to expand some of that water quality work up into the upper part of the basin, into places like Bayou Mar and Gwin, possibly Bayou Plaquemines and some others. Yeah. So I teased earlier about how you were on your perch at the Nichols Coastal Center. 'cause turns out you're a pretty big bird guy. Mr. Haas, you don't like [00:09:00] to just. Shoot them in the fall, but like you turned out to be quite a bird guy. Why don't you tell us more? 'cause I know you're dying to about your work with chimney. Is it Swifts Schiffs? Swift, why can't I, tease you about that, but I can't ever remember that. But really y'all do some really important bird work, but also invasive species, et cetera. So could you spend some time telling us about some, some particular projects that the program has going on that you're proud of? Sure. We you mentioned Chimney Swift. A lot of people mistakenly refer to 'em as chimney sweeps. I won't name names, but, uh. that straight. As a swifty, I'm ashamed of myself. I'm sorry. That's right, that's right. Chimney Swifts. Nonetheless. That's a, it's a, uh, a species. You may have seen them chirping around, uh, chimneys and smokestacks and things like that in your neighborhood, but, you know, there's a large percentage of the bird species that inhabit the world really, but certainly Louisiana and, and North America are really on precipitous declines. And so a lot of the work we do is related to bird and helping birds and helping to improve habitat, helping to improve nest sites. And so one of the things we've done is installed chimney swift nesting towers, which basically mimic, as you might imagine, a chimney, throughout the estuary to provide nesting, locations for those birds to help improve their population and of course that provides habitat, uh, so that they can make more young chimney Swifts. And then there's a research component to that as well in terms of how they're being used. What sort of, you know, uh, diets there, um, what kind of [00:10:30] insects for example they're consuming and that kind of thing. That, and help inform the location of future sites. We do the same thing with Purple Martins. We've got, I think six now Purple Martin colony sites throughout the estuary. We've got. One in new roads. We've got two in west Baton Rouge Parish, one in Plaquemine, one in Addis. Got one in Cocodrie and, and two in Grand Isle. If you've been to the community center on Grand Isle and seen the purple Martin colony there, it's quite large. Those houses are some that we maintain. And again, conduct some research through a project called Urban Native Greens, which is looking at the types of insects that those birds consume to get an idea of kind of how they can contribute to insect control and, and hopefully thrive, within the estuary. I mentioned earlier some of the monitoring that we do on a lot of the, Caminada out headland project, Timberlier Island restoration project, for example, where we're looking at species like red knots, piping, plovers, some endangered species, but all other sho birds as well. And how they're utilizing those habitats, whether or not the pre species that need they need are coming back into those restored habitats. And then again, that information is being fed back into, project design and development at places like CPRA, wildlife and fisheries and others. Bren, I was gonna ask you, do y'all still do the, the beach cleanups pretty regularly or are y'all still doing, like, so you said you're out there monitoring for birds, et cetera, but you're also doing other work out there. Yeah, so marine debris reduction, litter pickup, if you will, is another kind of big focus of our program. And so, yes, we have a, a team called our, our green team, our clean team that is at Caminada Headland at Elmer's Island. [00:12:00] Once a week during the summer and once a month in the off you know, the winter months collecting, marine debris. You'd be surprised at the things that wash up there. In fact some of you, if you're that are familiar with BTNEP, you may have seen, a social post that we had a, I don't know, this was a few months ago, I guess, that we actually found a note in a bottle that had washed up on the beach, collected it. It was kind of an interesting story. It was actually a, a family that was at their, at their camp or a friend's camp I believe on, on Grand Isle, and had decided to, to put a note in a bottle and see what happened to it. Well, it didn't go too far. It only went from Grand Isle to Elmer's Island. But nonetheless, we were collected it and were able to actually connect with that family. And they actually came down to the beach for one of our cleanups and helped to to pick up some of the trash and litter and stuff on the beach. So it was kind of an interesting story. It was great. There were young kids that had done this of course, and it was, a good, kinda educational moment. It's certainly for them and for us to share with others to talk about you know, keeping our beaches and our environment clean. I love that. What a good story. Also so I went to Nichols, graduated from Nichols. And it was much later in my life that I realized that they had a farm. Much Archie Chason dismay, , 'cause Archie spent a lot of time on the farm. Well, don't. Can you tell us a little bit about Farm Fridays and your the program's work out at the Nichols Farm? Yeah, absolutely. So I'll hit on Farm Fridays in a minute, but one of the, the biggest kind of efforts that we undertake here in addition to some of the things that I've just mentioned, is native plant propagation. So both native species that are used on restoration projects. And these [00:13:30] are things that are hard to grow that commercial nurseries, you know, don't like to grow. But we, we grow things like wax myrtles, persimmons, uh, toothache tree, sycamores, yon. Um, and the list goes on and on. I won't go through 'em all, but there's, you know, 20 or 25 species of, of plants that we grow. Most of 'em are woody, kind of shrub to tree species that are extremely important to some of those resources that I talked about earlier. Primarily birds. These are species that grow on kind of the higher ground along coastal Louisiana. So if you see a spoil bank or a ridge you know, you'll see hackberries and some of those other tree species and shrub species that I mentioned earlier. That's really the first high ground that a bird migrating from South America, for example, coming north to North America encounters. And so they're very important 'cause it's high ground, it's resting areas for those kinds of birds. And, also it provides the, the fruits, and the insects that are needed for them to refuel, if you will, and continue in many cases to head north, so that they can, reproduce. Those species are are native, natural, native species. So we actually go out into Louisiana's coast and we collect button bush seeds, for example. We collect hackberry seeds, we collect wax, myrtle seeds and so forth. And so these are, are seeds that are coming from plants that are in Louisiana's environment. The theory, of course, is that if we're collecting them from Louisiana's environment, they're have evolved to be able to thrive in these environments. And then we're propagating those and are able to use those on projects like the Spanish Pass Ridge and Marsh Restoration Project. There's a Fourchon Maritime Ridge that was built as mitigation for the port down there. We've got a longstanding [00:15:00] partnership with Port Fourchon. Um, we've got, uh, some projects that are coming up. Well, grand Lilliard Ridge, for example. Another project that's coming up is the Grand Bayou marshal Ridge Restoration Project. So, excited about that. In addition to those kind of shrubs and trees that I was talking about, we've got a, another initiative to propagate and to distribute within the estuary, get seeds and plants out to, to folks that want, to attract and help pollinator species. So there's a tremendous number of bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds of course, that rely on these kinds of plants. And the plants in turn rely on these animals as well. There's a partnership and spoiler alert, there may be a calendar coming out later this year that might focus on this issue. In fact. on that. You're spoiling it. You know, I Oh, well, we can, we can edit that out, I guess, or you guys can edit that out if you want. But there's some pretty amazing partnerships between various plants along our coast, and, and all Louisiana really, but particularly along our coast and the animals that rely on them. And I say the animals that rely on them, again, it's a symbiotic relationship. They rely on each other. But so a big part of what we do at the farm, is propagate those kinds of plants, both pollinator species and trees and shrubs that provide just tremendous habitat value from a restoration, large scale restoration project, you know, along our coast to somebody's backyard garden which can be just as important kind of locally to these, these species as well. All that's taken. To get back to your original question, all of that takes place at the Nichols Farm. So we have a, a nursery at the farm. The farm's a great facility. There's lots of [00:16:30] lots going on out there. There's some constructed wetlands and water quality projects that Nichols is involved in. There's a sugar lab. Um, but then our nursery is a big piece of it as well. What you had referred to earlier was Farm Friday, so the first Friday of almost every month we have an opportunity for folks that just wanna get involved. They might wanna just come see what BTNEP does out there they might have an interest in pollinator species or some of these other species that we propagate there, but they can come out and, and help us do our work. Farmer Haas. I love it. Love it, love it. Love to hear it. Yeah, it. yeah, absolutely. Okay. I wanna ask you one more question, about a program that I saw before we kind of move on to, to what you're looking forward to. Both you and I had an opportunity to sit down with Chancellor Christine Strickland and her very professional podcast set up as opposed to this set up, but Christine did a wonderful job but I saw that you have a collaboration with Fletcher down in Houma for a Coastal 1 0 1 program, but it's, it's a little bit more unique where you're trying to target a certain audience of folks that you're trying to get. Back into the workforce. Do you wanna talk a little bit about that partnership with Fletcher and a little bit more about that important work? Yeah, that's a project that we're really proud of and happy to be working with such great partners as, Dr. Strickland, of course, and, and Fletcher. So they have a, a program that is basically I believe they call it Coastal one oh one. And so it involves things like training on operating an airboat, training heavy equipment that [00:18:00] is used in construction of restoration projects, for example different, you know, technical equipment kind of used like GPS, excuse me, and things of, things of that nature. But anyway, a series of courses that can get folks prepared to enter the workforce to be involved in, in the coastal restoration or coastal protection industry but what we've done is partner with them to, on a project called Transitions to Reentry, which involves a phrase that I had not heard before, but, justice involved individuals. So these are individuals that perhaps had been incarcerated previously, but, are making steps to, get their lives straight and, and enter into the workforce and be productive members of society. And so the, the project involves targeting folks that have been just as involved and bringing them on board, providing some scholarship assistance for them to enroll in Fletcher and enroll in these courses so that they can be involved, in this economy that really has blossomed over the last, you know, 10 or 15 years or so and continues to grow. This economy that's been, really driven by the amount of restoration, the amount of protection work that has gone on in coastal Louisiana again for the last decade or so. I love it, Bren. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to ask you about it and, and I think, there are two great partners involved in that and, and I very much appreciate both sides leading the community involvement there too. So let's talk a little bit about what's coming up for you. As we close out this year. It's. Believe that it's September, but whatever. Um, I know that you have White Boot Gala, but sold out, so, you know, some people got [00:19:30] burned by it being sold out in the past. So just wanna put it out there that it's already sold out. us a little bit about that fun event you guys have and Yeah, so. they're missing out on. Well, yeah, unfortunately no. Fortunate, it is fortunate that we're sold out, obviously, that it means the demand is high. We would certainly would like not to be limited, I guess, in the amount of, of tickets that we can sell. But the White Boot Gal is a great event. It's held every year. Last year, actually, it was my first time attending it, but it was fantastic and really looking forward to this year, I think it's gonna be, a little bigger actually. We were able to, squeeze some more tickets into our venue, so that's good. And, uh, Good hopefully a little better as well. Yeah. But it's, we have a, BTNEP has a, there's a foundation associated with Barataria Terrebonne Estuary Foundation. And so the foundation puts this gala on each year. It's a little tongue in cheek, it being a gala, you are encouraged to wear your shrimp boots, your white boots to the to the event. Of course, we'll have a contest this year for the best set, best pair of white boots. So that'll be, that'll be fun. But, it's a fundraising event. It's time for us to get together the folks that are in the community and the, and the estuary to get together. Eat some really good food at Sparse, who's a fantastic partner of ours. A menu this year, looks fan, looks great. And, you know, bid on some, some interesting items, um, that are estuary kind of specific, some experiences. I'm, I'm, uh, I'm told, uh, or I'm donating I guess so I'm not told. But, uh, there will be a jud there will be not just a, not just not any fishing, not just any old fishing trip, a Juline catfishing trip. So, um, yeah, we're gonna. in just it that I have [00:21:00] dreams about such things. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. Um, But the event is, is very fun. And of course it raises money for our foundation that helps support a lot of the great work that we do here here at BTNEP. So anybody interested in donating to that foundation? Just go to our website and you can get some information there. And, we'd love to have your support. What else do y'all have coming up this fall? Do y'all, do y'all paddle in the fall or paddle in the We do, we do. We, uh, paddle will be on November 1st this year. We're still trying to lock down the location, but kind of going along with the theme that I mentioned earlier this year, we think we might actually be moving somewhere else in the, in the in the estuary. We've had last several years, our paddle value of Oche. We're thinking we might be in West Baton Rouge Parish. And more to come on that. I, I don't wanna reveal it yet, because I'm not sure if we're gonna gonna have that locked down just yet. But, um, yeah, we hope to be in a, a little bit different part of the estuary. We, one of the things we've produced actually here at BTNEP is a paddle guide. So we've got a, a book, a guide that tells you about, I don't know, there's 15 or 20 or so different paddles that folks can take. So paddling and kayaking and so forth has gotten much more popular over the last, you know. Decade or two. And, and, we've got a great guide available for folks that might be interested in that. And so we're hoping to use that guide, of course, to, to drive us to some other locations in the, in the actuary experience. Some of those, those other places. International Coastal Cleanup is coming up, that's September 20th I believe. So we'll be involved in that. That'll be something that we're doing with, uh, lot Nichols actually is very involved in that one. There'll be a lot of Nichols students. Uh, there. All comers are are welcome. Uh, that [00:22:30] will be at Elmer's Island again. So those are the big things coming up. We will have another management conference. So we have quarterly meetings of our stakeholders, essentially the estuary. We will be meeting, I believe in Plaquemine, uh, in Iberville Parish on November 6th. So if you're interested in learning more about BTNEP, wanna come see what we do, wanna come see who's involved that'll be a good opportunity to do that. I was gonna harass you about the calendar, but you already spoiled it a little. I learned so much about toads and frogs last year. Thank you. I cannot wait, um, to find out what I'm gonna learn about more this year. Uh, don't forget all. Lemme see if I get this right. All to all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. are totes. Yes. Yeah. Net. I Yeah. forget that lesson. Thank you. Um, appreciate it. No, it's funny, you talk, you talked about the calendar. If I, if I may, just a minute. So one of the things that Bitta has produced for, for years as a, as a title graph, calendar. And when I got here I had a lot of folks say nobody uses a calendar anymore. Everybody uses their phone and digital calendar. And I cannot tell you the demand that we have for that calendar. I, is unbelievable. Uh, I mean, people. yeah, my husband's friends who fish are like, Hey, do, do you have some of those calendars? Like, you Yeah, I mean, just, yeah. I can totally see where people still love that. And just another example of like a great resource that you guys produce for the community yeah, yeah, yeah. The demand's high [00:24:00] and it's always, along the way. it's always, always educational. Absolutely. All right, well, our time here has concluded. Can't let you get away. Uh, without Uh. Um, obviously football kicked off this weekend. Um, you are this weird Auburn. Tiger, LSU Tiger, whatever, way of education. Do you have any predictions for this football season? And we will absolutely hold you to it. So this is, um, uh, maybe not earth shattering after last weekend of course, but before last week maybe it would've been. I, I predict that LSU meets Clemson in the national championship game. So I think there'll be a rematch there. And, since you mentioned my other tigers to Auburn, tigers, I'm gonna predict that they finish a top 10 team. Oh, interesting, Yeah. All right. All right. We're gonna check in with you at the end of the year when we get our calendars. We're gonna check in to see how everybody did. Thank you for having another good time on the podcast. It is always a great to talk to you, to hear you talk about, something that you understand so deeply, which is caring about this place that you live, work, and where you grew up. And so thank you for bringing that leadership to the Estuary program. They're always a good partner in things and, and you've made that so much stronger in so many ways. Let us know what we can ever do for you, but we sure do appreciate the program's [00:25:30] participation and support of the Bayou Region community. Well, likewise, Simone, appreciate you having me and, and giving me an opportunity to share a bit about today. Thank you. Will you tell us how we can get in touch with the estuary program if you know, website, socials, those kinds of things. Give folks where they can connect with you directly. Yeah. The best place to, to get all of that really is probably through our website. Uh, it's BTNEP.org Alright, so coming up next, we're gonna have Jennifer Armand from the Bayou Community Foundation to talk a little bit more about the good work that's happening in the Bayou region. All right. We are going to get to our second guest today. A long time friend of mine. I'm so glad to have on the show. It's, it's probably gonna sound like we've been talking on the phone catching up, which will be a great thing up. Fun, fun thing, to talk about. But, welcome to the show, Jennifer Armand. Jennifer is the executive director of the Bayou Community Foundation, but she is a longtime friend of mine, so welcome to the show, Jennifer. Well, thank you, Simone. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's a delight to be with you. I'm so excited to chat with you over the next few minutes. had a little offline conversation that Jennifer was also part of Dr. [00:27:00] Christine Strickland's podcast, as was our first guest, Bren Haas. And so, this is not that I love Dr. Strickland, and this is amazing. But, yeah, she, she hit me with some real zingers on, on the show like what was my favorite song from a movie and things like that. None of that, Jen. Um, we. Yeah, I will ask you a fun question, but I promise you I know you, and I think that's one that you can handle. Jennifer is the executive Director of the Bayou Community Foundation. It's the only public community foundation specifically and solely serving Lafourche Parish. Terrebonne Parish and Grand Isle in the aftermath of hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. And after the 2010 oil spill, leaders in the Bayou region recognized the need for a community foundation to strengthen human services, education, workforce development, and coastal preservation efforts in our area, as well as to serve the, as a philanthropic engine for national and international assistance. In the event of a future emergency or disaster. So that work has sorted since hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But we also wanna talk to Jen today about what happened with Hurricane Ida just four years ago in the Bayou community. The Bayou Community Foundation has worked swiftly. And strategically to help local residents and nonprofits recover from that category four, some say five. Storms, devastation to rebuild lives and communities. Jen, that's all about BCF. Well, [00:28:30] why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you have this history of working in the Bayou region even before BCF. Yeah, so thank you Simone. Actually I'm not a native of the Bayou region. I was actually born in Alaka, Alabama, right outside the gates of Auburn University. Um, but. I promise it'll promise it'll come up. But my parents moved back home to Louisiana shortly after I was born. And I grew up in, Lafayette and Karen Crow in, beautiful Acadiana. And then my husband's work took us here to Terrebonne Parish back in 1997. Um, shortly after our daughter was born, and so I've been living and working, raising a family, and, maintaining my career here in beautiful Houma and Terrebonne Parish since then. So while I'm not a native of our area, I consider myself a very passionate advocate for this beautiful coastal region. I, I probably never realize that you were maybe born in Alabama. I just always thought about you as a southwest girl from southwest Louisiana and, and brought that to us in the Bayou region. But Jen, one of the ways that we got to know each other so well is that you helped me out at, at Restore retreat. You helped out the LA One Coalition. You were part of the Bayou Industrial Group, so you always kind of had your hands in some civic causes. Always in the Bayou region. Yeah, I was very fortunate, Simone, to be able to [00:30:00] work with you at Restore Retreat and Laurie LeBlanc Restore Retreat and re and Laurie with Mac Morganza Option Coalition, um, and LA One Coalition and so many other local advocacy groups, consulting on communications and, and. Public relations, et cetera. And it was from that work that I first found out about Bayou Community Foundation being formed. And I know you were very active in that development of that organization, serving as a, as a help and consultant yourself to our founders and it was through my work that I learned about this effort and, and. Talked to some of the founders about it and learned about it and said, Hey, I might be interested in working with you all, and was lucky enough to be appointed executive director. so Jen, I wa Yeah, I wanna talk about that a little bit because really one things that we're talking about, these milestone anniversaries, and that was a little bit in the BCF bio, is that we had hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. Obviously Rita hit. The other side of the state, uh, but really had a tremendous impact in Terrebonne Parish, just, just a month after Hurricane Katrina hit. And then that kind of led to this idea that they needed a vehicle, right? And the Bayou region. If, if assistance were to come or if folks wanted to help, how could they do that? But that's, that's really a little bit part of the origin story. Yes, absolutely. As you mentioned Katrina and Rita, we all know we, we marked the 20th anniversary of Katrina [00:31:30] last Friday, and the anniversary for Hurricane Rita will be coming up this, this month in just a, a few weeks. And those two storms Rita in particular, while it did not make landfall here in Terrebonne and Lafourche. The storm surge was so devastating from a storm that landed over a hundred miles away near the Louisiana, Texas border to have tragic. Storm surge flooded. 10,000 homes in Terrebonne Parish alone caused the breakage of a levee in ban. It was truly a wake up call to many people here about the need for hurricane protection in our region. We are thankful now we have Morganza to the Gulf, that is, is under construction and many segments completed, but also a call for the need for reinforcing our natural defense. And I think we have seen as a state more attention to that, since hurricanes Katrina and Rita for BCF, our founders saw these storms as an alarm or a need for, as you said, a philanthropic engine to address some of the human needs that our region has, not only after disaster in gray skies, but under blue skies as well. And it was after the 2010 Gulf Oil spill that things really started moving to, to form [00:33:00] BCF. Yeah, Jen, I mean that's something that we've talked about in, in past episodes, certainly before is this, this need to protect the protection, right? Um, these multiple lines of defenses, and that idea. But I, I love what you're saying about taking care of the people in that plan always. Right. And, and I think that's been so important to BCF's early days and, and then especially kind of in the second chapter that it had. But let, let's talk about a little bit more about those. Kind of tell us about getting by you community foundation starting, and what are some of the things, in those early years that maybe surprised you the most or that you're most proud about? So let's talk about, you know, BCF chapter one, if you will. Yes, chapter one. Well, I can say that BCF was formed in the fall of 2012, and in December of that year, we held a first ever, BCF Community Needs Assessment. We brought together representatives from government education, law enforcement, hospitals, nonprofits in a room, and talked about the needs of our area and what was most surprising that night. Is that from table to table? The number one unmet need was mental health. This was such a surprise to me at first. It was an issue that I had not thought about. And many, many of us, many of the founders also had not thought of as well, but it came from all these different corridors of our community. The [00:34:30] schools talking about the mental health impact on children and parents and what they were seeing in the classroom, and of course the hospitals and law enforcement, and it just went it went throughout. So at that point, BCF determined that that was going to be one of our focuses. And so for the next several years, through our annual nonprofit grants program. Mental health was one of the issues that we addressed through some of our grants supporting services in our community, as well as education, as you mentioned earlier, education, workforce development issues, other critical needs in our community, that nonprofits were addressing. And through the years that, nonprofit grants program has grown to over $3.2 million. Awarded since 2013 and we just had our most recent grant ceremony, for 20 25, 2 weeks ago, and we awarded $355,000 in grants to 32 local organizations, unsurprisingly after Hurricane Ida and COVID. We conducted a needs assessment in 2023 and behavioral healthcare once again, access to that care continues to be a huge need, and, and BCF continues to make that one of our priorities. Yeah. So you keep taking the pulse of, of the community, you know, finding out what they need, et cetera. You know, [00:36:00] Jen, sometimes, it, I know mental health is, is a lot of things. I'm sure you've, we've grown to, to learn even more about that, but sometimes it can be stressful living here, right? Just in even environmental conditions. Um, it, it's definitely stressful. These constant storms or the extreme storms or like you know, one thing that we talk about sometimes is incomplete recovery. How long it's taking to kind of pull yourself back up each time. And sometimes that happens on an individual level and sometimes that kind of happens as a whole too. So that's really, really important work to keep checking, keep checking, making sure that, that you're doing the right thing there. So I want, I wanna focus on about that IDA recovery too, because while we're talking, this is a big anniversary year because of the 2010 deep water horizon, but because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but not lost is the fact that Hurricane Ida hit four years ago, same day as Katrina, I think. Right. And, you know, came through Port Fourchon and, and definitely impacted the Bayou region. So let's talk about the, the Bayou Community Foundation work. That kind of changed even on a little bit after Ida. Yeah. Well, BCF, as we talked about earlier, was formed to, you know, to build our community's capacity. In blue skies in gray. And I'll tell you what, that philanthropic engine really got to work after Hurricane Ida. Just as Katrina [00:37:30] was such a catastrophic event for the New Orleans area and our neighbors in Mississippi, Ida was our storm. And we saw, you know. Tens of thousands of residents with damaged homes thousands living in tents and cars for weeks after the storm. Very unstable, unsafe living conditions. BCF immediately after the storm, thanks to the generosity of our donors, was able to, number one, within a week we held massive gasoline distributions in Lafourche and Terrebonne, and, during that time we saw so many people with just anything left, they had whatever they own just in their car and that's all they had. And it, it struck us that if we were going to have recovery in this area, we had to focus number one on housing. And second of all, on the people who have no other means to recover, that they would need help the most, particularly those in our vulnerable bayou communities. So following that gasoline distribution, we also distributed many, many grants worth, you know, $4 million to nonprofits who were doing critical work on the ground. And then we started looking at long-term recovery and that housing piece. And thanks to the wonderful volunteers from our Mennonite and Amish friends from MDS Storm Aid they came down to Dulac in November right after the storm and was looking to see if this was a place they could [00:39:00] help. Well, we immediately learned about their work, met them, and said, this is an opportunity we cannot pass up. Volunteers wanna come here to fix people's homes, rebuild homes. We've got them help. Just straight service from somewhere else. Yes, so BCF made a million dollar commitment at that point, um, to buy building supplies for their effort. They set up camp in Dulac and that first season now has turned into what will be a five season project. Five year projects starting this coming December. Working with Mennonite and Amish volunteers, we have invested to date $8 million on repairing and rebuilding homes in our area for under-resourced residents who have nowhere else to turn. The most phenomenal part about it, Simone, is that we have been able to assist over 550 households. I was gonna ask you what the number was, and I would've not, I would've not even thought that many. Yeah, 550. We have built 54 storm fortified homes, in Lafourche, Terrebonne, and Grand Isle. We've had 10 full house restorations. These were homes where everything needed to be gutted. So all that existed was their exterior walls and their foundation and, and our volunteers were able to completely rebuild that house. We've also done, [00:40:30] you know, over 450 or whatever repairs everything from mine help age. together and, and getting it more complete. And, um, and like I said, we have our volunteers coming back. In fact, in fact, I was with them this morning. They were looking at a few sites of clients that we have for, for repairs and new bills. This season, starting in January, we'll be working in Houma, Raceland, Thibodaux and Northern Terrebonne. So addressing other parts of the parish. This time it's, it's been truly. The most rewarding, impactful program I've ever been involved with in my life. What I have learned as just a nonprofit leader, as a community resident, but most importantly just as a human with a heart, Yes. just been a tremendous, and I'm so fortunate to be able to do this. and to think, Jen, that like, you know, um. Like, uh, you know, Wendell RL used to always say like, you know, you've been through one storm. You've been through one storm. Like, meaning they're all different, right? In that, in this case, maybe they didn't flood or some parts, you know, that was different and, and the wind damage was bad and this or that. Or like, what, what you don't want is, is those folks to go through another storm season and have that incomplete recovery. And so, so that's really just important to kind of like. You know, I don't wanna say moving on, but, but it is right. You know, because sometimes that is hard to, [00:42:00] to put it all together to be able to do that. And so, is there something that you see could be different for the future, or do you see this kind of, you said it was a five year project, but like, you know, this is not how you started BCF, like do you, do you see something on the horizon or like something, a future challenge? Well, I hate to ask you for a future challenge, but you understand what I'm saying? Like, what, what do you think could be next? Or, or how does BCF continue to evolve to meet the community's needs? Yeah. So many thoughts come to mind. , First I can say that the reason this project has gone from one year commitment to now five years happening is because as, as our project co, uh, coordinator volunteer says, because we didn't know what we didn't know, so we got into doing something. We didn't know. We just said people need help. And we did it. And through every year, every challenge we have faced, we have been flexible and nimble. We've adjusted to the challenges and to the opportunities that have been put in front of us. And I think that has been key to the achievement of the help that we've been able to provide. What we are seeing now, the more and more we get into this work is just. The need for safe and secure housing for so many people. Obviously the storm laid much of that bare and the [00:43:30] need continues, which is why our work continues in this area. But beyond the storm, there's just really a need for just safe, secure housing for so many other residents in our community who are living in situations that many of us would never. Never be able to do ourselves probably, but could never imagine. Yeah, and you see that reflected. I know you mentioned earlier like y'all had another round of grant giving and you can see that reflected in the organizations that y'all give to. I know. Food insecurity, you can see that. You can see that Yes. the list that that, that's really important. In addition to continuing mental health and, and providing services there too. So, I think that's really important. I, I wanna talk about this a little bit, Jen, because mentioning these different organizations that y'all give to, that's something that BCF really believes in. And that's maybe something that's not always well understood outside of our community is that you are trying to not just expand capacity of these, organizations already doing the work, but you're also trying to like grow capacity and build capacity and strengthen that. So y'all really just empower organizations, right? Y'all leverage opportunities and just shift that power to them. Is that fair to say of BCF? Yes, yes. In fact, building the capacity of our local nonprofits, is one of our focus areas. It's [00:45:00] part of our mission. And we do that in addition to the grants that, as you said, support delivery of specific critical programs. We also provide many learning opportunities throughout the year. In fact, right now we're in the midst of a four session cohort called Clicks for a Cause, and we have representatives, in this four session workshop learning all about digital communications strengthening their website and their social media presence and their newsletters. And it has been phenomenal we're really excited about that. We also, on October 9th, we'll have our annual. Bayou Region, nonprofit conference. We just love this event. We started, I think in 2018, I believe, with this annual conference at Fletcher Technical Community College. It's our home away from home for all. It's a good home away from home. And, we usually have between a hundred and 150 local nonprofit representatives attend for a day of learning and networking. Um, wonderful. I would invite anybody, you don't have to be in the Bayou region to come to our conference. We'd love to have people from outside of our region attend. And it's October 9th and anybody can find out more information on our website buy you conference.org. you have the wonderful Julie Lapus coming in, right? Yeah, Julie Lapus is our opening keynote speaker and we're so excited. We've been wanting to have her for a while and this year [00:46:30] the dates worked out. And she's gonna be talking about nonprofit leaders shouldn't, should themselves because, you know, Simone, that we often we often hold blame or, or make ourselves too responsible sometimes for things that are out of our control and we need to just remember to, to take it easy on ourselves sometimes. Jen, I mean, I don't know if you think about this a lot, but like that is a way to help complete, like you were talking about all the programs and services BBC has, BCF has, so like the kind of complete services, but you're thinking about that on the individual level as well, and. supporting the nonprofits, doing all this work. So I love that, that y'all are so intentional on the individual level and then carry it through to your programs too. You mentioned it earlier, but give us all the details. What did you just say? Clicks for a cause, like, give us all the socials, let us know where we can find all the information out. Right. Well, clicks for calls is already underway, so anybody can look at our, check out our social media channels, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, to see reports on that. And then our conference, bayou conference.org is our official. Registration site. , Our website has this and all the information about our organization, bayoucf.org. Um, as well as information about our Rebuild the Bayou program, which is the housing recovery program, where you have talked about and you'll find other, uh, news and [00:48:00] information about our board and et cetera on the website. love, love some of your board members, there from day one, right? And y'all, y'all have gotten new recruits and, and so that's so amazing. Um, okay, Jen, uh, we're gonna wrap this up, but you don't get away without the fun question. You've, you've alluded several times, Auburn, LSU, breas, who was a previous guest, was one of those like. Double tiger grads. Right? And so I know you like football, but so, so tell us your predictions for either Tiger Season. Bren, Bren was pretty bold in his decisions, but you could be softer or not about it. So, tell us about your predictions for the season and tell us your favorite place to watch a football game. Okay, well, well, I can say, I'll be honest, that I was picking Ls, LSU to, I think drop three this season, but after their win against Clemson, I'm, I'm thinking a little more optimistic. Was lost this weekend. That makes things look better too for us. So it looked, it's looking good. I'll say, I'll just say one loss. Let me say, Bren. Bren got all bold and he was like, I think LSU's gonna play Clemson again in the national championship. I was like, whoa, buddy. I just asked you a fun question. I don't even wanna go that far. Yeah, can't. you don't have to go so far. It's just so funny the commonality between you, like I was season about being on Christine's show and then doing the, the double, the Auburn LSU connection between you [00:49:30] two. So, two of my favorite people that I've had an opportunity to spend a large part of my professional career working alongside. So, Jen, I cannot say how grateful I am for your leadership. Bayou Community Foundation and and all the different things that you touched and, and how you brought really intention to that and making sure that. know, people were clearly communicated too, and that they understood the issues no matter how hard they were. But then they always saw the opportunities for them to address them. So just thank you for that. Thank you for being on the show. It's been a great way to catch up. that'll be it for today's Delta Dispatch is. Episode a big thank you again to Jennifer and Brent Haas for being back on the show in the Bayou region. You can learn more about the Bayou Community Foundation by visiting bayoucf.org and BTNEP at btnep.org. You can find this episode, all the past episodes at deltadispatches.org and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Thank you for listening once again, after a while, crocodile.