Dr. Gary LaFleur

Hometown

Eunice, Louisiana

Current City

Thibodaux, Louisiana

Generation

Baby Boomer

Does land loss affect you?

Yeah, coastal land loss definitely affects me because I started out studying the animals of the marsh, especially Fundulus Grandis (that’s the Cocahoe Minnow or Gulf Killifish), that made me kind of fall in love with the marsh of the coast. And within just a few years, I could see that the marsh itself was going through something like an ecological disease. So once you’re interested in the animals and plants of the coast, it’s always better for that coast to be preserved. So I could tell that there was a problem going on; and I learned from friends at BTNEP (Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program) how that was happening through coastal land loss.

What are you doing about land loss?

Well, y’know, we have an agency here called the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and they are awesome experts, probably the best in the nation at coastal restoration. And the kind of work they do takes millions of dollars; you need big bulldozers and draglines and barges and a lot of heavy equipment to really recreate the coast. They’re good at that. I don’t have access to that but I can teach students about the problem. Y’know I went to LSU in the 70s and 80s and I know that that story of coastal land loss just wasn’t being taught. So I make sure that even though I’m teaching something like Physiology, which isn’t necessarily about the coast, I make sure that Nicholls students know about coastal land loss. And then I try to plant the idea in their heads that what they should do is go enjoy and celebrate and experience the coast while we have it. Because even though we’re losing it, it’s still there and beautiful right now. And there’s still people of the coast to meet, to talk to, and hear about the history and there’s still a lot to absorb from the coast. So that’s what I try to plant in the minds of my students.