BILOXI, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University Extension Service was part of a team that won a second place 2019 Gulf Guardian Award presented in October.

The partnership award was given for the development and implementation of Gulf TREE -- or Gulf Tools for Resilience Exploration Engine. Gulf TREE was created through the work of the Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative, the Gulf of Mexico Climate and Resilience Community of Practice and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Resilience Team.

Renee Collini and Mikaela Heming, both MSU Extension Service associates, were part of the team that won the Gulf Guardian award. They work with the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium and the Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative.

James Henderson, head of the MSU Coastal Research and Extension Center, where Collini and Heming work, said the award demonstrates the value and importance of Gulf TREE, which is an outreach education program targeted to coastal communities.

“Gulf TREE is a web-based decision support tree that helps users narrow their searches to find visualization, decision support and modeling tools for their specific needs,”  Henderson said.

Collini, program coordinator for the Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative, said Gulf TREE was created to fulfill the need for guidance in climate tool selection.

“It was designed to serve the needs of natural resource managers and community planners seeking to incorporate climate resilience into their projects,” Collini said. “Tools are available for such topics as flooding, wetland mitigation, temperature, sea-level rise and precipitation changes.”

Access these tools online at http://gulftree.org.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Gulf of Mexico Program gives the Gulf Guardian awards annually to recognize and honor businesses, community groups, individuals, partnerships and agencies taking positive steps to keep the Gulf healthy, beautiful and productive.