Office of Coastal Management

DNR Coastal Managers To Receive National Award

Baton Rouge, LA – Three coastal managers of the state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will be recognized by the Washington D.C.-based program,Coastal America, during ceremonies held at the Aquarium of the Americas on Tuesday, September 19, 2000.

Coastal America's chairman Dr. Joseph Wesphal will preside over the award's ceremony in New Orleans. Wesphal is also Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army for Civil Works.

Award recipients are being acknowledged for coastal restoration work performed on Breton Island after damage from Hurricane Georges in 1998. DNR Secretary Jack Caldwell said "DNR's Office of Coastal Restoration and Management has proven to be both responsive and diligent in its work and we are all honored by this special recognition."

Coastal America officials will also award DNR, along with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/New Orleans District for the multi-agency effort in responding to Hurricane Georges' devastating affects on Louisiana. Emergency dredging and habitat restoration were key goals of the agencies in the rebuilding strategy.

Awarded for individual participation in the Breton Island project are DNR's coastal managers Greg DuCote, Jeff Harris, and George Boddie.

DuCote serves as Coastal Management's Interagency Affairs program manager. He began work at DNR in 1987. Harris, also a member of the Coastal Management staff, started work at DNR in 1982. Harris is a geologist and is in charge of the Consistency section.

Boddie is a civil and environmental engineer in the Coastal Restoration division. He has worked for DNR for 10 years and serves as head of the division's Engineering section.

Coastal America, established in 1992, addresses critical coastal and environmental problems along the nation's coasts.

Editors: For more on this topic, please contact DNR Public Information Officer Phyllis Darensbourg at 225-342-8955.