RoR’s Year In Review 2024 — Looking Forward to an Equally Successful 2025!

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t was a monumental year for growth and change at Restore or Retreat with a few challenges thrown into the mix too. We invite you to read the below and view a showcase of our successes. We also want to express a sincere Thank You for being a part of our efforts to protect and restore our wetlands for future generations to come. We couldn’t do it without YOU, our RoR Supporters.

2024 is a year of mud memories, new friends, old friends, volunteers, plants (more than any other year), awards (both our Executive Director and Project Coordinator honorees) and collaborations for our wetlands. Mother Nature and her assistance was of course one of those challenges we faced. 

Plantings of live oaks, sand oaks, cypress, mangroves, smooth cord, marsh hay and paspalum in three parishes would keep us planting all year long. Terrebonne, Lafourche and Jefferson Parishes were the recipients of the plants within their marsh, barrier islands and newly-created terrace ecosystems. Among the groups that we must express thanks to Ducks Unlimited, Jefferson Parish Government, CPRA,  MANGGear, ConocoPhillips, Woodside Energy,  Apache, Wisner Land Trust, and Quality Printing all working to make these projects successful.  Mud, wind, rain, and low water would become our theme for the plantings all year long. Postponing 3 events due to winds and temperatures that made for challenging conditions with low water, wind chills and cold fronts too all greeting our team for these plantings.  In total, Restore or Retreat planted 22,500 plants across the region.  Our incredible volunteer teams representing industry partners from SHELL, Danos, LOOP, GLPC, ConocoPhillips, GIS, CCA, CPRA, LSU, NSU and several local tribes along with ordinary citizens who simply love our coastal wetlands. 

Restore or Retreat wishes to thank all of those who provided us with grants for these critical projects to come to fruition.  These include: Citgo, Restore America’s Estuaries, Woodside Energy (Australia based), Greater New Orleans Foundation, the Fourchon Oilman’s Association and CPRA’s Conservation Partnership Trust Fund. Those funds have gone to benefit our large scale projects and some will also carry over into 2025.

When not planting this year we were out in our communities visiting students in support of World Wetlands Day, attending meetings and publicly speaking in support of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project.  Recognizing that this project is critical to our region and the State of Louisiana we continue our vocal support of this project to be build as designed, permitted and funded.  We traveled to Washington DC as members of the SHORES Coalition to gain more federal funding and also worked to support the passage of the Statewide Constitutional Amendment to benefit our future funding of our coastal program. The amendment passed with 73% of voters approving it statewide.  We also began our work on the upcoming 2029 Coastal Masterplan and the USACE Lower Mississippi River Comprehensive Management Study by providing appropriate comment. Both of these are 5 year plans that lead and guide the direction of our coast and river system. 

2024 also saw two very important corporate collaborations with Restore or Retreat.

• MANG Gear is a Florida-based clothing company with a mission to buy one/plant one mangrove globally.  For more information visit www.manggear.com. They will return to plant with us in February. You are invited to join us for that planting once dates are set.
• Also joining the Restore or Retreat family of support is Louisiana grown and based Topwater Company. For all you fishing enthusiasts, when you buy an item they will be funding purchase of vermillion smooth cord marsh grass plugs to go back into our wetlands. Visit www.topwatercompany.com. We are excited to have them join our family of support. 

The collaborations with these companies show their support and commitment to our efforts along the coast. We thank them both and hope you will join us in supporting their efforts for our ecosystems. 

Lastly, as we head into 2025 we look forward to starting the year off with needing you to support our organization. We have 30,000 plants to go into the ground in the first quarter of the new year and we will need both lots of volunteers and financial support to make it happen. Please contact Polly directly at [email protected] if your company or group would like to join us for the plantings.  We invite you to become a member visit www.RestoreOrRetreat.com and also join in supporting several companies that are working both locally and nationally to help Restore or Retreat.

Thank you all again for your continued support. Thank you 2024 for making mud memories and success beyond our imagination. 

       — Joe and Polly