We had a great visit with Dr. Robert Twilley, Louisiana Sea Grant Director and a faculty member at Louisiana State University. Robert gave a wonderful seminar at Horn Point Laboratory, covering the history of coastal Louisiana wetland loss, Mississippi River diversions and provided the context for the 2012 Master Plan. The IAN group collaborated with Robert and various Louisiana scientists to produce three science newsletters on coastal Louisiana issues shortly after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated Louisiana. And more recently, Robert assembled a group of scientists and engineers for the Science and Engineering Board to advise the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which brought me to Louisiana several times over the past few years. Robert also got roped in to talk with our Science for Environmental Management class about science-policy interactions, and regaled us with some fascinating stories.

As part of Robert's seminar introduction, I reprised the song that I had adapted from "Me and Bobby McGee", written by Kris Kristopherson and Fred Foster. My song was as follows:

Me and Bobby Twilley

Busted flat in Baton Rouge

And Headin' for the Plan

Feeling pretty talked out in a few days

Bobby put our panel together

To help his Delivery Team

Took us all away to New Orleans

We made our panel comments

To the Delivery Team

And talked it through

While Bobby sang the blues

With those many deadlines keeping time

And Bobby clappin' hands

We finally covered all the points that we all knew

Planning's just another word for nothing else to do

Planning ain't worth nothing but it's free

Feeling good was easy Lord

When Bobby sang the blues

Feeling good was good enough for me

Good enough for me and Bobby Twilley

From the delta of the Mississippi

To the coastlines of the Chenier

Bobby shared the secrets of the Plan

His team standing beside him, Lord

With everything he done

Every night he kept us from sleeping

Then somewhere near the end, Lord

We let him know what we thought

Looking for the wisdom we hope to find

And we'll trade all our tomorrows

For a single yesterday

Holding Bobby's team next to ours

Planning's just another word for nothin' else to do

Planning ain't worth nothing but it's free

Feeling good was easy Lord

When Bobby sang the blues

Feeling good was good enough for me

Good enough for me and Bobby Twilley