Inaugural
"Louisiana Levee School" Set for Late November in
Baton Rouge
November
7, 2007
BATON ROUGE
- A group of more than 35 levee board and district officials
will be part of the inaugural class of the "Louisiana Levee
School" or more formally called the Flood Protection and
Ecosystem Restoration Professional Development Program to be
held at the Louisiana Transportation Research Center located
at 4101 Gourrier Ave. in Baton Rouge on November 27-29, 2007.
The three-day
program hosted by the LSU AgCenter, Louisiana Sea Grant, the
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and the Louisiana
Department of Transportation and Development is the first step
in providing a professional development program to assist public
agencies, including levee boards and districts, in fulfilling
their statutory and fiduciary responsibilities in flood protection
and ecosystem restoration. After initial training, participants
will return annually for one-day continuing education.
The Levee
School curriculum was developed by the LSU AgCenter and Louisiana
Sea Grant.
"Louisiana
is going to be the world center of excellence in coastal restoration
and flood protection," said Department of Natural Resources
Secretary Scott Angelle, who was instrumental in the creation
and funding of the program. "We are starting with professional
training of our appointees."
Topics to
be covered include:
"Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita taught us that we need to integrate our approach
to both our man-made flood protection systems and our natural
environment," said Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
Chair Sidney Coffee. "Levee School will give our commissioners
and managers better tools for decision making."
Dr. William
L. Jenkins, President Emeritus of the Louisiana State University
System will give the welcoming comments to the incoming "freshman
class."
"Better
communication and understanding among agencies, engineers/scientists,
the press and our citizens is essential for good decision-making
processes," said Bruce Thompson, a New Orleans businessman
who was part of the Levee School formation team. "Levee
School will provide us with both the common language for that
communication and a 35,000 foot view of how the pieces fit together."
"Our
state agencies deal with very complex issues," said Department
of Transportation and Development Secretary Johnny Bradberry,
whose department also provided funding. "Professional development
programs like "Levee School" will greatly improve
how our commissioners serve the public interest."
For more
information, please visit www.laseagrant.org/leveeschool. For
a copy of the three-day agenda, please click the following link:
www.laseagrant.org/leveeschool/DraftAgenda.pdf.
Media members
are invited to attend at any time during the three days. For
more information, please contact Louisiana Sea Grant Research
Associate Justin Farrell at (225) 578-6348 or by email at jfarrell@lsu.edu.
