// Our Name & Story

Born in the Bayou. Built for the World.

Osprey Initiative began with a deep connection to the water and a drive to solve real environmental problems. What started in Louisiana swamplands has grown into a mission to protect natural spaces through practical, scalable solutions.

Our Timeline

A Beginning & A Purpose

// Where It Begins

The lush backdrop of Louisiana swamplands is where it all began. Osprey’s owner and founder Don Bates grew up exploring the drainage ditches of Hammond, LA with his brother, Kiley, in pursuit of crawfish, minnows, frogs, turtles, and amphiumas. You could often find Don and Kiley roaming the land at the Bates family camp in Manchac, LA, where they had free reign to anywhere their hip boots or pirogues could take them. Nature was practically the family business—their grandfather was a state and federal game warden and several family members are commercial fisherman, conservationists, and swampers. This deep appreciation for the environment was the beginning of the foundation for Osprey Initiative.

// Our Name - The Osprey

We are often asked the origin of our name and there are several reasons. As a kid in the 70’s, Don was aware that the sighting of ospreys or eagles was the equivalent of a unicorn sighting. The pesticide DDT severely impacted the osprey, eagle, and pelican populations. The toxic effects of the chemical resulted in weak egg shells or, in some cases, infertile eggs. Fortunately, DDT was banned, habitats were protected and enhanced, and these iconic birds came roaring back. If you’re along Gulf Coast waters today, it’s highly likely you will spot an osprey. The osprey relies on the ebb and flow of nature to survive. They are efficient at plucking their sustenance from the surrounding waters and are adept at playing their role in the environment.

// Osprey Initiative Is Born

The Osprey Initiative story officially began in the fall of 2017. Don was participating in a volunteer cleanup with his employer, Thompson Engineering, and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) of the Maple Street Tributary of One Mile Creek in Mobile, AL. Over 200 bags of litter were removed that day from a 400-yard section of the canal. The majority of the litter was from stormwater runoff. If this was recovered in 400 yards, how much litter remained in the hundreds of miles of watershed? Don had already been thinking of an economical, tactical solution to prevent this very issue. Unfortunately, a few more rains would bring litter back to the place they had just cleaned. It was time to start developing his idea for a long-term solution.

// Innovating for a Better Future

An Environmental Solution

We wanted to develop a low-cost, low-maintenance device that could be installed and moved easily. The device needed to be low-impact and able to be tactically placed to intercept litter at the source. The Litter Gitter was born from this concept. We installed the prototype Litter Gitter in the Maple Street tributary of One Mile Creek in October of 2017.

We have worked, or are currently working in, 30 states across the US, in addition to projects in three other countries. Osprey’s process is to continuously modify our deployment strategies to ensure that we are working with the natural flows of our waterways and using these flows or landforms to maximize our efficiency.

// Overcoming Obstacles

The Challenge

The Initiative part of our name is meant to assert action. Our challenge to ourselves and our partners is “What are YOU going to do about it”. At Osprey Initiative, our devices and programs start with observing what the natural environment is telling us. We then try to design the simplest, most effective solutions to minimize our impact to the natural world. The osprey resurgence is a great example – if we can identify the problem and do something about it, we can remedy the problem. We challenge ourselves to overcome the obstacles, ignore the malcontents, and lead by example to bring real world solutions to help solve environmental issues.

// Ties To The Past

The Connection

The personal ties to the environment and the osprey name run deep. Owner and founder Don Bates’ favorite place in the world was the south shore of Lake Maurepas in Manchac, Louisiana. His Uncle Charles has several sets of fishing lines where they catch blue cats, yellow cats, and alligator gars. The first fishing line is tied off to an ancient cypress tree, where one osprey or another has nested for decades. This local landmark serves as Don’s confirmation that he is back home in the waters that have provided for his family for over a century. These are his waters and he hopes that we all have our own home waters that soothe our souls, tie us to our past, and excite us about our future for generations to come.