During OCEANDOTCOMM 2018, I learned so much during my short time at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), but there was so much more that ended up serving as a springboard for futher exploration post-event. After OCEANDOTCOMM, participants continued sharing their products on coastal optimism, such as environmental reporter Sara Sneath and her article in The Times-Picayune titled Marine lab has ‘front row seat’ to Louisiana coastal loss.

I started following Sara’s writing and was excited to read her series in August 2018 on “Saving the Southern Wild.” This collection of three articles looked at three Louisiana species – the American alligator, brown pelican and Louisiana black bear — and how the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Endangered Species Act helped strengthen the populations of these species and prevented them from going extinct. The American alligator was determined to be fully recovered and removed from the Endangered Species List in 1987 (PDF), the brown pelican was delisted in November 2009 (PDF), and the Louisiana black bear was delisted in 2016.

Read the series by Sara Sneath:

• Alligator’s comeback offers lessons as conservation law faces criticism
• How the Pelican State nearly lost its pelicans
• Has Teddy’s bear really recovered?: Saving the Southern Wild

View the videos from NOLA.com:

Explore the quilt!

The pattern for this quilt is one I modified from Patchworks Studio Windswept View, squaring off the windows but leaving the borders so one feels as if they are looking out a wall with three adjacent windows. The completed quilt is 20 inches in height by 43 inches across.

The pelican photo I took as part of the OCEANDOTCOMM event held at LUMCON in 2018. The bear fabric was purchased from Log Cabin Quilt Shop in Bird-in-Hand, PA. LUMCON Director Craig McClain was kind enough to let me use his alligator photo for this quilt – so I created a special version of the quilt just for him. He captured this photo at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve and posted it on Instagram in 2020.

The Instagram post:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Craig McClain (@drcraigmc)

The quilt (thank you, Craig!):

This quilt is approximately 35 inches wide by 28 inches in height and was completed on November 21, 2020. Thank you, Craig, for the use of your amazing photo!

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