NEW ORLEANS – The James M. Cox Foundation has gifted $2.5 million to Ducks Unlimited to support the protection and restoration of Louisiana wetlands. The grant will help rebuild 40,000 acres of wetlands, enhance wildlife habitat, and create natural storm buffers for communities across the state at risk from rising waters and eroding land. It will also protect local fishers, oyster harvesters, and future generations by strengthening Louisiana’s natural defenses during hurricane season.
The funds will support an initiative focused on conserving coastal marshes and prairies in Louisiana and Texas—one of the most ecologically rich and vulnerable regions in the United States—and build on a prior $1.1 million grant from the Foundation that helped preserve nearly 20,000 acres of Louisiana wetlands.
“Restoring wetlands in coastal Louisiana and Texas is critically important to the future of North America’s waterfowl, other wildlife, and people, yet these habitats are disappearing at an alarming rate,” said Cassidy Lejune, DU Director of Conservation Programs – S. Louisiana. “In the next year, DU plans to invest more than $61 million to impact over 40,000 acres across the Western Gulf Coast. While much of that is competitive public funding, it must be unlocked with private dollars. That’s why this gift from the James M. Cox Foundation, coupled with our ongoing partnership with Cox across the country, is so impactful. It will accelerate efforts to ensure that future generations can experience the abundant resources this landscape has to offer.”
The Foundation’s $2.5 million grant to Ducks Unlimited marks the continuation of its long-term commitment to restoring America’s wetlands.
“As a native of South Louisiana, I am deeply grateful for this gift from the James M. Cox Foundation, and proud of Cox’s longstanding relationship with Ducks Unlimited,” said Jeff Breaux, chief commercial officer for Cox Communications. “Conservation initiatives like these are highly critical — as is their impact on the safety, sustainability and future of our communities."
Jim Kennedy, chairman emeritus of Cox Enterprises and chairman, James M. Cox Foundation, is Ducks Unlimited’s single-largest donor. In honor of Kennedy’s philanthropic legacy, Cox Enterprises recently announced a $100 million gift for Ducks Unlimited’s land trust, Wetlands America Trust, to help conserve North America’s prairie pothole region. Previous grants from the Cox Foundation have supported conservation in Louisiana and around the Chesapeake Bay.
“Being a good steward and actively caring for the environment is one of the many ways Cox supports our communities,” said Breaux. “With Mr. Kennedy’s and the Foundation’s whole-hearted support, we’re able to expand our impact even further.”
Louisiana Coastal Restoration Dynamics
This effort comes during a time of dramatically shifting dynamics in the broader landscape of coastal restoration in Louisiana. In July, Louisiana officially canceled the $3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion—the largest single ecosystem restoration effort in U.S. history and previously a central pillar of the state’s Coastal Master Plan to fight land loss.
Louisiana lost over 2,000 square miles of land between 1932 and 2015 largely due to levee construction, canal cutting for industrial purposes, subsidence, and sea-level rise according to a report issued by The Data Center, a Southeast Louisiana nonprofit focused on regional data and analysis. The report, titled “Pathways to Prosperity Louisiana,” highlights how reduced sediment flow from the Mississippi River has contributed to this ongoing erosion.
The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project was conceived as a large-scale solution to this problem. The project was designed to channel sediment and freshwater from the Mississippi River into the Barataria Basin—an approximately 1.5-million-acre wetland area on the west bank of the river—helping to rebuild and sustain disappearing wetlands.
Natrx Living Infrastructure Protects Coastal Louisiana
In addition to philanthropic efforts by Cox and Ducks Unlimited, private-sector innovation is playing an increasing role in advancing coastal resilience. Companies like Natrx are helping redefine what's possible in coastal protection and wildlife habitat.
Natrx applies its proprietary, nature-based technologies to address coastal resilience, habitat restoration, and asset protection challenges. With over 80 commercial installations across the globe, Natrx’s approach is helping redefine the future of coastal protection, particularly in vulnerable and heavily built environments.
Natrx uses proprietary flow, wave, and wind modeling to design site-specific living infrastructure solutions and measures biological performance through indicators such as marine life presence and changes in marsh health. Other recent projects include a Louisiana case study where Natrx ExoForms outperformed traditional rock breakwaters during hurricane conditions.
Coastal Restoration Efforts - Glass Half Full
Glass Half Full offers a complementary, ground-up solution—recycling glass into restoration materials—that has grown from a backyard project to a global model.
Glass Half Full is the nation’s first company to turn recycled glass into coastal restoration materials. The company opened a new cutting-edge, three-acre facility in Chalmette in May, processing over 300,000 pounds of glass per day.
First launched in 2020 by two Tulane University students, Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz, Glass Half Full started as a backyard operation diverting glass from landfills and repurposing it to combat coastal erosion in Louisiana. In 2021, the startup won the Startup St. Bernard pitch competition and was awarded over $100,000 in funding and services. In return, Glass Half Full officially committed to planting roots in the parish. Now Benson Capital Partners and the Meraux Foundation are supporting this effort with multimillion-dollar investments.
About Ducks Unlimited
Ducks Unlimited Inc. is the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving North America's continually disappearing wetlands, grasslands and other waterfowl habitats. Established in 1937, Ducks Unlimited has restored or protected more than 19 million acres thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across the continent. Guided by science, DU’s projects benefit waterfowl, wildlife and people in all 50 states. DU is growing its mission through a historic $3 billion Conservation For A Continent comprehensive campaign. Learn more at www.ducks.org.
About the James M. Cox Foundation
The James M. Cox Foundation is named in honor of Cox Enterprises' founder and provides funding for capital campaigns and special projects in communities where the company operates. James M. Cox was Ohio's first three-term governor and the 1920 Democratic nominee for president of the United States. The Foundation concentrates its community support in several areas, including biodiversity, conservation and environment; early childhood education; health; and empowering families and individuals for success.
About Cox Communications
Cox Communications is committed to creating meaningful moments of human connection through technology. As the largest private broadband company in America, we own network infrastructure that reaches more than 30 states. The Cox fiber-powered wireline and wireless connections are available to more than 12 million homes and businesses and support advanced cloud and managed IT services nationwide. Cox Communications is the largest division of Cox Enterprises, a family-owned business founded in 1898 by Governor James M. Cox that is dedicated to empowering others to build a better future for the next generation.
Through Cox Business, Hospitality Network, RapidScale and Segra, Cox Communications provides a broad commercial services portfolio including advanced cloud, managed IT and fiber-based network solutions that create connected environments, unique hospitality experiences and support operational applications for nearly 370,000 businesses.
