VIOLET, La. (AP) — A volunteer-heavy effort to restore some of Louisiana's eroding coast with recycled oyster shells was part of the scenic backdrop Wednesday for a visit from the head of AmeriCorps, the federal agency that deploys volunteers to serve communities around the nation. Michael Smith, the CEO of AmeriCorps, visited a storage area in the town of Violet, where he got a look at piles of oyster shells, many collected from Louisiana restaurants.
They are being gathered and stored by the nonprofit Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, which uses them to build reefs along the vulnerable coast. The new reefs also provide new breeding ground for more oysters. Smith used the visit not only to boost the oyster recycling effort but also to tout the importance of volunteer efforts in the area nearly 19 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.
“It's so important to be here today because what we see here is that not only did those folks make a difference back then, 19 years ago, but they've stayed in the community. They continue to be involved,” Smith said in a later interview. Smith said it is not unusual for AmeriCorps volunteers to get involved long-term in the communities they serve.
As he spoke, an example was playing out to the southwest in coastal Terrebonne Parish, where dead or dying “ghost trees” along the bayous are signs of saltwater intrusion from the Gulf. It is where 26-year-old Fiona Lightbody, now with t.