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Welcome
to the
Shea Penland Coastal Education and Research Field Station
The
Coastal Education and Research Facility (CERF) is a field
station for the University of New Orleans Pontchartrain Institute
for Environmental Sciences (PIES). It is a working lab with
graduate and postdoctoral level research ongoing year-round.
The CERF is uniquely situated between the Lake Borgne and
Lake Pontchartrain Estuaries on the Chef Pass tidal inlet.
The CERF is located in the middle of one of the best learning
environments in the nation for undergraduate biological and
environmental sciences. The Pontchartrain basin is one of
the most dynamic estuaries along the Gulf coast. The CERF
is also located less than a quarter of a mile from the nations
largest urban wildlife refuge, the 23,000 acre Bayou Sauvage
National Wildlife Refuge.
Mission
Statement
The
mission of the CERF is education and research in the basic
estuarine processes, coastal environmental science, and coastal
restoration. Programs at the field station are central to
the University of New Orleans' mission to provide interdisciplinary
educational and research opportunities addressing an area
of vital concern--coastal erosion and land loss.
A
major goal of the CERF, and the parent institution, the Pontchartrain
Institute for Environmental Sciences (PIES), is to create
a corridor for research, from the upper reaches of the Pontchartrain
drainage basin rivers, down through the Lake Pontchartrain
and Lake Borgne estuaries, to the Chandeleur Islands, where
a long-term nekton database has been established.
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