CO-COORDINATOR:
     Lawrence R. Handley is a geographer with The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC), Lafayette, Louisiana, where he supervises the Mapping Section of the NWRC's Spatial Analysis Branch. His duties include directing aerial photography acquisition and interpretation, wetland map production, and selected projects using geographic information systems (GIS). Mr. Handley specializes in wetland, upland, and seagrasses interpretation and mapping, and natural resource evaluation. His experience includes many facets of environmental assessment and wetland interpretation, especially mapping and surveying for land cover and landscape analysis projects.

Mr. Handley continues to teach physical geography, GIS, and remote sensing as an adjunct professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He has received grants from local, state, and federal sources for wetland interpretations and has written education cooperative agreements. Mr. Handley works closely with teachers on wetland issues, aerial photography interpretation, and field method techniques. He also directs internships in cooperation with regional colleges and universities, and teaches technique seminars and training sessions. Mr. Handley has given more than 95 workshops between 1977 and 2006. He has presented more than 100 papers and invited presentations at colleges, universities, and multiple discipline conferences since 1995. Mr. Handley is the Executive Secretary of Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), an international geography honor society, a national director (1998-2006) of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), serves on the (Louisiana) Governor’s Environmental Education Commission, and serves the National Council for Geographic Education Board on the Finance Committee. He received the Distinguished Informal Science Educator Award 2002 from the Louisiana Science Teachers’ Association.

Mr. Handley's WETMAAP responsibilities include acquiring data (aerial photography, maps), interpreting wetland data, and directing website development, developing content, and facilitating workshops.