The St. Charles Parish Coastal Zone Advisory Committee (CZAC) met on February 10, 2026, at 12:00 PM in the Council Chambers of the Courthouse, Hahnville. All seven commissioners were present. The meeting featured presentations from the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) and an overview of coastal zone management and the committee's role. Key actions included approval of a revised coastal use brochure, discussion of a joint permit application for the Couba Island Christmas Tree Restoration Pens, and updates on coastal activities and proposed restoration projects.
Thank you. Like the records show that all seven commissioners are in in attendance today. All right. First on the agenda, we got approval of previous meetings minutes, which were included in your packet. If we can get a motion to accept the previous meeting's minutes. Motion by Miss Babbin. Second by Mr. Lambert. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed. Please remember to digitally vote. Is it up there? Okay, you can vote now. Mr. Lambert. Vote. Please. Yep. Okay, and that motion passes unanimously. Next up on the agenda, we have a presentation by Badaria Terrabone National Estuary Program. Miss Nikki Boudreau and Mr. Bryn Haas. You now have the floor. We appreciate y'all being here. Do I need to push? There we go. Think I'm on now. Okay. Good. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate uh appreciate you all being here. It's nice to see uh some familiar faces, some folks I've worked with uh certainly in the past, and Nick and I are excited to be here and share with you a little bit about uh BitNEP, who we are and what we do. Um we have uh we're both relatively new to the organization, uh, which I think gives us a little bit of a unique perspective kind of on where we've been as program and kind of some of the things we do, but one of the things we've definitely been trying to do is to get out into other parts of the estuary uh from where we're sort of centrally located. Um and I'm happy to say that one of our first endeavors to do that was just about a year ago um this week. Uh we we held a management conference um uh just at the at the base of the bridge down there uh here in St. Charles Parish. So it was good to I think you guys were our first foray in like decades outside of Thibodeau, uh which is where our office is located. Um BitNEP is a little bit difficult to sort of put in a box where uh first off I should say BitNEP stands for the Barriteria Terrible National Estuary Program. You you guys I'm sure already uh understood that, but uh it goes uh needs to be said, but um we're a little hard to to put in a box. We're not a real um uh easily defined, I guess, uh program in uh in terms of what we do. We're uh many people think we're a nonprofit, we are not a nonprofit. Many people think we're part of Nichols State University because that's where our offices are and have been for 30 years or so. That's not the case. We're not actually officially a part of Nickel State University, even though certainly that's Tibetau and the Bay region is is the heart of where we have historically operated and where we've been. Um people think we're uh a federal or state agency, and both of those things are sort of true. Uh about half of our funding comes from the federal government, another half of it comes from the state. Um technically we're state employees. Um, but we're really uh and most of the work we do um is actually carried out by folks like you, partners from around the estuary.