Connecting the World:
LA Coast Web Site Brings Researchers and Resources Together 

You may not see the connection between coastal Louisiana and the continent of Australia, but then, you're not Dr. Christine Bach. Dr. Bach, a scientist in the Natural Re-sources Division of Australia's Department of Lands, Planning and Environment, was looking for ways to monitor remote wetlands restoration projects when she discovered the LA Coast Web site. The site at http://www.lacoast.gov is full of project reports, satellite images, land loss maps and related publications. Dr. Bach was particularly interested in reading about Louisiana projects that battle saltwater intrusion and weed invasion — the primary problems she faces in northern Australia. And after implementing the solutions she found at lacoast.gov in a new Australian monitoring system, she called the site, ". . . very comprehensive, and for my interests in saltwater intrusion more relevant than most others." 

Many people are agreeing with Dr. Bach. Since going online in 1998, the LA Coast Web site has boomed, with over 500,000 hits in the last year alone. People of various ages and levels of expertise are using the site. Environmental scientists throughout the world are learning about Louisiana's problems in an effort to find new ways to help their own wetlands. Teachers are discovering educational tools to supplement their lesson plans. Grade school, high school and college students alike are working with it as a research tool for projects, reports and theses.

Besides Dr. Bach, the LA Coast Web site has had visits from people in 45 countries in the last year, including Brazil, France, Hungary, Israel, Japan and South Africa.

According to Scott Wilson, electronics engineer with the National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette, which manages the La Coast Web site, some of those visits are surprising: "We've even had people visiting the site from Yugoslavia. With all the chaos going on during the last year, they were still looking at our site."

You might expect international visitors to lacoast.gov to look for information different from that sought by visitors from coastal Louisiana. But some of the most common problems in Louisiana — saltwater intrusion, coastal and barrier islands erosion — are also points of interest for visitors from all over the world.

All of these issues are covered in great detail on the site through project reports, and that's what visitors continue to comment on. Scientists, teachers and students are responding to the quality of the site and the importance of its information. Jane from the Cape Cod area left this message in the guest book: "My first visit to this Web site stems from an interest in finding what can be done to restore a particular wetland on Cape Cod — a long way from the LA Coast! After I complete an initial exploration of your impressive site, I'll get back, probably for further guidance. NICE JOB!" Sean wrote, "Looks great! I am teaching my first Wetlands Restoration course this winter and am finding some great info about LA wetlands here. Please keep up the good work!"