““We must be more than resilient; we must be relentless. Relentless in our pursuit of justice.””
— Elder Rosina Philippe, First People’s Conservation Council of Louisiana

Restoring Louisiana Marshes: Protecting Sacred Sites, Increasing Tribal Resilience, and Reducing Flood Risk

This project involves filling in the canals dredged in Louisiana’s wetlands in order to restore marsh ecosystems, reduce land loss and flood risk, and protect sacred sites. The Grand Bayou, Grand Caillou/Dulac, and Pointe-au-Chien tribes initiated this project which integrates coastal resilience activities and cultural heritage. Learn more by clicking any of the links below:

“The Lowlander Center and First People’s Conservation Council of Louisiana are restoring wetlands damaged from dredging more than 10 thousand miles of canals for oil and gas exploration in coastal Louisiana. Wetland losses have a disproportionate impact on the First Peoples of Louisiana because their disappearance threatens the social, agricultural, and cultural, community dynamics including sacred burial grounds. Shellfish and finfish harvested by the community are directly dependent on these wetlands and wetland loss means communities lose protection from storms and flooding. The restoration methods used are successful within 2 years, inexpensive, and prevent further wetland losses.”
— Gene Turner, PhD, LSU

Lowlander Center and Harvard University Solar Micro-Grid Project

This research project is a summer program where students, scholars, practitioners, and activists work together on some of the most pressing issues of our time. Five Research Assistants, all undergraduate students at Harvard University, work with Prof. Jason Beckfield on a faculty-led research project, along with Research Coordinator D.A. Evrard, and collaborators at the Lowlander Center. The approach we take is that of Participatory Action Research, as practiced by the Lowlander Center. The Lowlander Center works to build and advocate for indigenous and immigrant communities living close to the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas, and as part of that work, are engaged in research on how to do a just energy transition from fossil fuel dependency to renewable energy opportunities. 

This summer, we focus on local solar-powered microgrids in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Fellows’ responsibilities include writing brief reports on research on the social processes of community engagement, writing brief reports on the history of indigenous communities’ relationships to energy producers in the region, interviewing people currently living on the US Gulf Coast about how they relate to traditional energy and renewable energy, learning about the regulatory environment for “on-grid” and “off-grid” energy transition, gathering demographic data on the region’s communities, and synthesizing information in support of the Lowlander Center’s just transition projects. The goals of the research project are set collaboratively, and include the development of information necessary to apply to US federal agencies for financial support of micro-grid development.

The Roosevelt Project: Moving Towards Decarbonization

Transitioning the United States economy toward deep decarbonization will have unequally distributed effects, positive and negative, across socio-economic groups, geographies and economic sectors. The concerns of workers and communities adversely affected by the transition must inform the discussion around decarbonization, associated policy changes and institutional development. The goal of the Roosevelt Project is to provide an analytical basis for charting a path to a low carbon economy in a way that promotes high quality job growth, minimizes worker and community dislocation, and harnesses the benefits of energy technologies for regional economic development.  Lowlander was a contributor for this project which resulted in helping to access the needs of solar and providing for solar in under resourced communities across the Louisiana coastal region. 

In the wake of Hurricanes Laura and Delta, Lowlander team members and disaster recovery professionals Kristina Peterson and Julie Maldonado formed the Disaster Justice Network (DJN). DJN is a volunteer network lending support to share critical information that is not easily accessed for the hurricane recovery processes. The network includes community leaders, faith leaders, advocates, activists, practitioners, researchers, and students weaving together environmental justice and disaster expertise to develop strategies that address the inequitable access to disaster response and recovery efforts and to advocate for a justice-driven recovery process.

“People are suffering. They have not been rebuilt from Hurricane Ida. We need safe and healthy homes. We need solar so people can afford their energy. We need to take care of our people.”
— Sharon Lavigne, President Rise St. James, Goldman Prize 2021

Tim Reinhold, Lowlander Team Member, repairs a roof.

The resiliently built Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe Greenhouse withstood Hurricane Ida.


Climate change has threatened the home insurance industry such that insurance companies are dropping weather event coverage as never before:  the weather risks they cover are causing them to exclude protections from various weather events and raise monthly premiums and deductibles. 

"Major insurers say they will cut out damage caused by hurricanes, wind and hail from policies underwriting property along coastlines and in wildfire country" —Washington Post

No time in the history of the United States and particularly of Louisiana has there been such a need to acknowledge and practice resilient home construction.  There is no alternative to maintaining a housing industry and homes for the American population. 

The co-leaders of Lowlander, Kristina Peterson and Shirley Laska, have been advocating and supporting the culture's change to resilient construction since the 1980s through university and faith disaster response organizations.  Their commitment today is reflected in the coastal construction following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustaf, Ike, Issacs, Laura, Delta and Ida.  A coast-wide campaign to encourage resilient rebuilding has been instituted since Ida: Rebuilding the Boot.

“Rebuilding the Boot” is a hands on public education campaign through which the DJN seeks to share information that can help our communities learn how to use proven resilient techniques to build and re-build. Building a more resilient community that can better withstand storms and other climate changes saves our homes, our culture, and our Louisiana. Lending libraries for tools and hands on demonstration sites are available for community members to encourage mutual aid and assist with sustainable reconstruction.

 
 
“How many more communities must suffer before public policymakers and others with the ability to DO something actually provide incentives to help people (re)build better, stronger and safer? We need to aim MUCH higher. The goal should be for everyone who lives in vulnerable areas to become more resistant and resilient. ”
— Julie Rochman, former head of the Institute of Business and Home Safety

rising voices, changing coasts hub

Lowlander Board President Theresa Dardar with an elderberry plant.

The Lowlander Center is a partner in a new 20 million dollar NSF-funded project: Rising Voices, Changing Coasts. The RVCC Hub will bring together Indigenous knowledge-holders with social, ecosystem, and physical Earth system scientists with the goal of co-developing ways to address coastal hazards and create more resilient communities. Critically, the knowledge-sharing among participants in the hub is designed to flow both ways, with university-trained scientists benefiting from the deep understanding held by Indigenous people of the places being studied, and Indigenous people benefiting from the regionally specific information that can be generated by computer modeling and other research techniques to help inform difficult adaptation and mitigation decisions. Ultimately, the hub will interweave Indigenous knowledge, modeling capabilities, archeological records, GIS techniques, socio-economic analysis, and hazards research.

“Current measures and indices of resilience fail to capture the cultural strengths that make Indigenous Peoples resilient in the face of climate catastrophe.”
— Daniel Wildcat, PhD, Rising Voices CC-HUB NSF Award

Addressing Climate-Forced Displacement in the United States: A Just and Equitable Response

In partnership with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the Lowlander Center has developed a policy brief on Climate-Forced Displacement. The five key recommendations are as follows:

Preserving our place: A Relocation and adaptation toolkit

In collaboration with the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe, the Lowlander Center produced a toolkit document for communities who are at high environmental risk and attempting adaptation.

The Isle de Jean Charles (IdJC) tribe had been working to define development goals in relation to their community relocation from their ancestral home due to sea level rise issues on the Island. Working with IdJC community members, our team produced a methodology for working together and site objectives, design, and analysis related to potential relocation and memorialization efforts supported in part by the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academies of Sciences published a report with findings and recommendations regarding the unique challenges associated with managed retreat among vulnerable coastal communities in the Gulf Coast region. The report focuses on policy and practice considerations, research and data needs, and community engagement strategies.

Louisiana Universities Resilient Architecture Collaborative (LURAC)

Lowlander is currently working to revive the Louisiana Universities Resilient Architecture Collaborative (LURAC), which educates architectural and planning students in sustainable resilient standards to be leaders for climate resilient design. LURAC aims to “weave together” architects with other resilience specialists to develop a clearer knowledge of the challenges to resilient buildings and community form, processes to develop and implement design solutions at the neighborhood and community scale, and implementable best practices disseminated through professional networks in Louisiana and beyond.

Note: Because it was such an in-person program, LURAC has not been able to function since Covid. In addition, the two hurricane seasons which contained Laura and Ida kept Lowlander engaged with direct recovery and thus unable to participate. Recently, Nick Jenisch, Tulane, the coordinator of LURAC and Shirley Laska, project lead for the Lowlander Center, have begun discussions toward how the initiative can benefit from its first two years of existence plus remote engagement approaches utilized during the hurricane recovery. Watch this site for the revised initiative.