The last few weeks, the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) has fielded inquiries about what different companies are doing to help the Gulf Coast recover from the most recent crisis. Corporate citizenship managers report that employees want to help the region recover from the oil spill.

However, there has been some reticence on the part of management to get involved, in part because companies don’t want to get in the way of BP’s efforts and also because they are not sure exactly who is doing what, in terms of the different government agencies, non-profit organizations, and other volunteer groups.

On the other hand, local chambers from across the region are concerned about the confluence of large, complicated issues. The St. Tammany West Chamber, Greater New Orleans Inc., and the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber organized a series of meetings to put information out there to help companies better understand the situation. The following is a brief report on what the chambers presented.

The Situation

If there is one take away from the region, it is that the Deepwater Horizon spill itself is not the main issue.

Several times we heard that the media and the moratorium have caused far more damage than the oil spill. Read on.

Terrebonne-Houma had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation this past year, but 40% to 50% of its economy is dependent on the oil & gas industry in one way or another. Another fifth of its economy is dependent on the fishing industry. Each oil rig employs 125 to 250 people directly; three- to four-times as many in support. The moratorium has affected upwards of 10,000 jobs in a parish with an entire population of 100,000 people, of which 65% of the kids already qualify for food assistance in the schools.

Multiply this across the region, and you have a dramatic unemployment shock that would normally be buffered by the fishing industry. Ground zero for the oil spill was on the eastern side of New Orleans in the parishes of Plaquemines and St. Bernard. Despite the fact that in Louisiana only 135 miles of coastline (out of 400) have been affected, the perception that all Louisiana seafood is tainted has caused this industry to fall off a cliff, too. You have 8th- and 9th-generation fishing families going out of business now.

We also learned about the impact on the Vietnamese community in the region. After the Vietnam War, a significant number of refugees located in a few camps across the United States. The then-archbishop of New Orleans saw one of the camps in Arkansas and invited the refugees to settle in East New Orleans, where they built a thriving community – the hot steamy weather and the delta fishing conditions were reminiscent of what they left behind. The fishing situation has had a disproportionate impact on this immigrant community.

But the state of the wetlands hovers over everything. Sure, residents are concerned about the impacts of the oil spill, but they kept coming back to the relationship of the river, the land, and the Gulf.

The Mississippi River spans 41% of the nation’s geography. It moves millions of tons of silt and nutrients ranging from the Ohio Valley and the upper Midwest like a giant funnel down to the delta. For thousands of years it built up the Louisiana wetlands, with each flood depositing land and creating the unique habitat that we know today. The river didn’t stay in one streambed, but flowed out to the sea through various channels over time.

However, these floods caused serious damage and loss of life for the region’s residents, and after the particularly vicious flood of 1927, the federal government got involved and built levees, locking the Mississippi into place. While this had many positive effects for people, navigation, and commerce, the downside is that the land lost its natural source of re-supply. As a result, over the last 50 years, Louisiana has lost the equivalent of the state of Delaware in terms of its landmass.

So what are some of the effects?

* Currently a 7,700-square mile “dead zone” exists where the nutrient riches of the Mississippi have mixed with the Gulf of Mexico’s plant life to suck all of the oxygen out of the water (which is why you can see some of these dramatic fish kills on Mississippi beaches)
* The salt water/fresh water demarcation point has moved steadily northward into the wetlands, affecting the mix of flora and fauna in the region.
* Hurricanes don’t have the natural breaking mechanisms offered by the wetlands and cause much more extensive damage further inland. If the Katrina storm surge that hit Mississippi and Alabama had hit Louisiana instead, water would have submerged land over 68 miles inland, as opposed to the 6 miles along the Mississippi coast.

So What Can YOU Do?

As Michael Hecht, the CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., suggested, it might be worthwhile to think in terms of short-term, medium-term, and long-term solutions. Other local officials suggested it might be worthwhile to think in terms of addressing the symptoms or addressing the system.

The following recommendations by no means are complete. For additional information, we suggest you get in touch with any of the organizations listed on the BCLC Gulf Coast resource page.

What you can do:

1) Eat Louisiana seafood. Cap’n Charley put it succinctly to us, “We don’t want hand-outs. Our seafood is checked by five different agencies, which is more than you can say for any imports. Please encourage restaurants in your home town to put Louisiana seafood on the menu. There’s a reason our food is considered some of the best in the nation.”

In that same vein, if you have marketing or operations employees who want to volunteer, encourage them to think about working with local Louisiana fishing companies to help them think about different ways to get more out of their operations.

2) Help the Louisiana economy diversify. There is an area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge where plantations offer tours along the Great River Road. The Laura Plantation, Oak Alley, L’Hermitage, and Bocage are just a few of them. But their potential is under-utilized – they could be like the Napa Valley of Louisiana – offering unique attractions, food, wine, rum, sugar cane candy, and so on. “Terrebonne” literally means “good earth” or “beautiful land” and it is home to some of the most scenic wetlands in the country.

If you love the idea of Creole magic mixing with Spanish moss and albino alligators, this is a land rich with the possibilities of a unique kind of ecotourism. This is a working land where Air Products, Mosaic, Dow, Conoco Phillips, Weyerhaeuser, and Imperial have all invested. GNO Inc. just announced plans for a windmill manufacturer to add 600 jobs. Corporate citizenship isn’t just about philanthropy, it’s about seeing the sustainable, economic potential of a region – and helping the region realize it.

3) Contribute to wetland restoration. It costs $40,000 -$80,000 to restore an acre of wetlands. Organizations like the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and Seedco Inc. are working hard to replant cypress forests and to rebuild and remediate swamps, mangroves, and forests. As Alison Brown from United Business Media, who accompanied us on the trip, said, your company might want to consider an “Adopt a Coast” program.

4) Support non-profit capacity building in the region. Local United Way chapters are deeply concerned about the fall-off in economic activity and skyrocketing unemployment, and yet they have to meet more social challenges than in the past. Schools, clinics, and community organizations like Catholic Charities would gladly welcome volunteer support. And, don’t overlook the local chambers themselves. They are an incredible resource for helping to build the economic base of the region, and they could all use more help.

5) Support small businesses. Small business development centers in Louisiana are providing technical assistance to hundreds of small businesses every year. They would love skilled volunteers that have expertise in business strategy, financial analysis, marketing, operations, etc. These could be short-term assignments with possible remote follow-up.

6) Work with local nonprofits on mental health issues. With the oil spill affecting the way of life for many people on the coast, mental health professionals have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people needing assistance. Some of your employees might have specialized training in mental health and would be willing to volunteer for short- to medium-term assignments. There are too few mental health counselors in the Gulf Coast to meet the current demand for these services. Any assistance that your company could provide to help meet this demand would be of great help.

At the time of this writing, we are leading two more economic assistance teams in Louisiana this week, and we are talking with local chambers about future delegation trips to Alabama and Florida.

Our goal is to help you make up your own mind about what’s best for your employees and your company, and we encourage you to connect with local resources. For more information, please visit the BCLC Gulf Coast resource page.

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This piece is cross-posted with permission from the BCLC Blog.