Nichols State biology professor helps students to become “stewards of the land”

July 8, 2011

Nichols State University biology professor Dr. Gary LaFleur, Jr. told Eunice Rotarians earlier this month that bigger isn’t always better in higher education.

LaFleur, a Eunice native who began his college career at Louisiana State University Eunice, said that small colleges like LSUE and Nichols are “important for creating stewards of Louisiana’s environment.”

“You can learn small ideas from big universities, but I think there is a need for small universities, such as Nichols and LSUE, colleges with small class sizes, to get students in touch with Louisiana’s environment,” LaFleur said.

LaFleur said people such as LSUE Professor Malcolm Vidrine and former professor Charles Allen were a huge influence on his career.

LaFleur, a reproductive physiologist, said that his research into gar reproduction led him to research on Louisiana’s coastal wetlands and ecosystem loss.

Gar are the only fish whose eggs contain a neurotoxin, LaFleur said.

LaFleur has performed research into the toxicity of gar eggs and larvae, to determine how toxicity levels increase and decrease during development of young.

Much of his gar sampling has come from the Atchafalaya Basin, which led to LaFleur’s research into coastal erosion.

LaFleur’s research into estuary health has involved using frogs as monitor species.

“You can track frog health and in that way, track the health of the estuary year by year,” LaFleur said.

LaFleur said one acre of coastal land is lost every 30 minutes, and it is important to get students involved, through research such as his, and the “Coastal Landscape Photography” class taught at LSUE, to encourage more students to become stewards of the land.

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