UL Grad: Judy Steckler Director of Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain

[Turbine]

OCEAN SPRINGS - Tips from the Work Coach....How to deal with a difficult employee Judy Steckler stood on the banks of Fort Bayou, looking at the edges of the 30 acres of land that she had worked to lock in its natural state evermore. Light spilled through the leaves of 400-year old Live oaks onto the banks of the bayou as she brushes a hand over a waist-high oak sapling. "History has it that they used to do baptisms here on this bank," she says, connecting the innately idyllic setting's past use to its current one. "You can almost forget that you are in the city here." But Steckler does not speak in just the soft words of environmental sentimentalists. In her years of leading the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain, a nonprofit community group whose mission is to conserve, promote and protect open spaces and green places, she has learned the economics and language of modern conservation. She sows her speech with buzzwords of the movement- viewsheds, easements and takings. This property, called Twelve Oaks, is just one of 22 that Steckler has brokered for their conservation in perpetuity. In the open market, keeping land undeveloped- even in the public interest- is expensive. This 30 acres cost $1.8 million. Putting up that type of money takes lots of friends for a little charity. According to the IRS, Steckler was able to raise $1.4 million in 2004 alone for the Land Trust's mission. Over half of that money came from direct public support while the rest came from government grants. Right now, most of that money is spent when it comes in, but Steckler wants to build up a $1 million endowment by the time the Land Trust celebrates its 10-year anniversary. And she has been pushing hard to increase the pool of moneythe group can use. According to forms filed with the IRS, the Land Trust increased its net assets by more than three times over the course of 2004. Steckler has cultivated relationships with citizen groups and corporations alike, taking a pragmatic approach to generate the capital that buying desirable land requires. She said that the Land Trust's membership stands at around 200 people and businesses, including such divergent groups as DuPont, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Nature Conservancy and the Sun Herald. "These small parcels may not save the Gulf of Mexico, unless there's lots of them, but it is about quality of life for the people who live on the Coast," she said. "More people live on golf courses that don't play golf than do play. The reason for that is they want to live near the green space." Maybe Steckler's drive to save at least some of the Coast's natural space comes from a childhood spent in the rural town of Elton, in the rice-growing region of southwest Louisiana. Or maybe it comes from her experience as a mother- the nurturing of her two children that developed a certain empathy with the land. She was born to a millworker in Elton, who switched between lumber and rice depending on the season. She went off to school at the Southwestern Louisiana Institute, which eventually became Louisiana State University at Lafayette, and graduated with a degree in home economics. The rest of the story smkeller@sunherald.com

[RaginFan2]

Dang! How old is she? She went to SLI? That was before 1960! Also, I guess you could also say the "evil empire" has really infiltrated the system to change our name to one they could live with!