GulfCorps

Restoring the Gulf’s Environment and Economy

GulfCorps, a project of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), aims to create jobs for hundreds of young adults along the Gulf of Mexico. With the support of the RESTORE Council (Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revised Economies of the Gulf Coast States), GulfCorps protects and restores the Gulf’s lands and waters while creating jobs through conservation corps in the five Gulf states (Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas). These crews are teams of young adults restoring the natural features and habitats on critical conservation lands.

GulfCorps launched in 2017 when NOAA awarded a $7 million grant to TNC for the creation of the program, a collaboration of TNC, the Student Conservation Association (SCA), and The Corps Network (TCN). GulfCorps mobilized with one crew in each of the five Gulf states in early 2018. By the program’s third year, we plan to have three crews in each state, totaling 15 GulfCorps crews. This project was made possible through funding received from the NOAA Restoration Center and RESTORE Act.

Inspired by Fire: GulfCorps Fire Song and Video

Simon Haggerty and Rolo Henderson wrote original music and lyrics for a song about their work in prescribed fire in the southeastern United States. Watch the video and read about how their collaboration began.

And that’s when fellow crew member Ronald “Rolo” Henderson got involved. Simon and Rolo had become friends through a shared love of music. They stayed in touch and, over time, got together to write and record original music centered around conservation. According to Rolo, who wrote part of the lyrics, “We want this to spur something in young people. Young people can go outside, get paid, and love what they do.” As evidence of that opportunity, Rolo now works as a land steward at TNC’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve in Florida, and Simon has worked with the Student Conservation Association in California.

For Simon, it’s about connecting with nature. For me “being in nature helped me better connect with the living God. I hope what we wrote shows people that we got to experience life on a deeper level in places you don’t get to see every day. They are very healing, these places. Like sanctuaries.”

GulfCorps is led in TNC by Jeff DeQuattro, Director of Restoration for TNC’s Gulf of Mexico Program, who has spent his career caring for the coastal habitats across the Gulf of Mexico. “I feel lucky to have had the chance to work with these amazing young men, and I hope they know I, and TNC, will always be here to support them and their art. The future of the planet is in the hands of their generation—and they give me hope.”

See the video!