LSU Awarded $780K for Nature-Based Efforts to Help Louisiana Tribe Protect Coastal Land
January 08, 2024
Pointe-au-Chien, southeast of Houma, La.
LSU is using nature-based solutions to help a Louisiana Indian tribe whose ancestral lands in coastal Pointe-au-Chien are endangered due to growing environmental challenges. A recent financial boost will lead to the expansion of that project.
Since 2022, LSU has been working with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe to protect the tribe’s fishing, hunting, and farming community, one of Louisiana’s oldest settlements. Matthew Bethel, associate executive director of research at Louisiana Sea Grant, has been leading the project, which will expand into a full-fledged $780,000 design project funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program.
“We lead this work by learning from the tribe’s perspective and factoring in traditional ecological knowledge and priorities from the tribe,” Bethel said. “At a larger scale, our collaborative can be adopted, adapted, and applied by researchers working with almost any community on local issues.”