First Lady Laura Bush Dedicates J. L. Scott Marine Education Center on Mississippi Gulf Coast

First Lady Laura Bush told marine educators and conservationist Friday, November 2, 2007 that people need to fight the pollution of oceans and waterways.

She spoke at ceremony designating the J. O. Scott Marine Education Center's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory located in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.  The lab-which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina two years ago- was designated as a Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center.  It is the 21st center designated which promotes recycling, conservation and a general education about marine life.

Bush said "healthy oceans and waterways provide the food we eat and often the water we drink."  "I've seen what humans can do and what our behavior can do to devastate marine life."

The Coastal America Partnership is an interagency, intergovernmental, public-private partnership to restore and protect coastal habitats and resources.  Coastal America includes 13 federal partners and over 1,000 state, local and non-governmental partners around the county.  The United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Forest Service are two of those federal agencies.

NRCS and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality partnered together and donated an Enviroscape (interactive watershed model) and a Groundwater Aquifer Model for watershed educational support.

For more information contact:
Jeannine.May@ms.usda.gov

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