FRI-FS-02: Between Source and Sink: Tracing Carbon Across Coastal Louisiana

Field Session Leader(s)

• 

  Liz Camuti, ASLA, PLA (she/her/hers)

  Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture
  Tulane University and Spackman Mossop Michaels
  New Orleans, Louisiana
• 

  Richie Blink (he/him/his)

  Director, Captain
  Delta Discovery Tours
  Buras, Louisiana

Field Session Presenter(s)

• 

  Nans P. Voron

  Senior Director
  SCAPE
  New York, New York
• 

  Luke Lamb-Wotton

  Post Doctoral Fellow, The Mangrove Lab
  Tulane University
  New Orleans, Louisiana
• MB

  Michael Biros

  Restoration Programs Director
  Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
  New Orleans, Louisiana

Coastal Louisiana, Courtesy Liz Camuti, Tulane University

Join us on a boat tour of the Mississippi River Delta, tracing carbon across Louisiana’s working coast. We’ll experience a tale of two landscapes—one reconnecting to dynamic river processes and the other shaped by industrial development—and discuss how landscape architects, communities, and scientists are working together to reimagine its future.

Experience an exclusive, hands-on field session—limited to just 18 participants. Includes transportation, boat tour, catered lunch.

Accessibility: This session primarily takes place on a boat and is not wheelchair accessible, which may present challenges for attendees with mobility limitations.

Learning Outcomes:

• Analyze relationships between industrial infrastructure and wetland health through field observation of carbon sources (maritime industry, coastal protection infrastructure) and sinks (marsh vegetation, sediment accumulation) along Louisiana’s working coast.
• Identify opportunities for nature-based solution design that can serve multiple functions: capturing carbon, enhancing ecological health, and providing flood protection to coastal communities.
• Evaluate strategies for making complex environmental science accessible to diverse stakeholders while ensuring that historically marginalized communities have meaningful input in coastal planning and adaptation efforts.
• Compare perspectives on coastal restoration across multiple scales—from community-based projects to state-level planning—drawing on both technical expertise and local knowledge.