Coastal Issues | Habitat | Activities

What Is OCRM Doing to Protect and Restore Coastal Habitats?

Through its coastal management efforts, the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) is helping protect and restore coastal habitat in a number of ways.

Coastal Zone Management Program

Habitat protection and restoration is one of the key objectives of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). The CZMA directs state coastal programs to "preserve, protect, develop, and where possible, to restore or enhance, the resources of the nation's coastal zone for this and succeeding generations." OCRM's Coastal Zone Management Program, in partnership with state coastal management programs, provides technical assistance and funding to support numerous habitat mapping, planning, acquisition, restoration and monitoring projects. In addition, with support from their CZMA funding, many state coastal management programs have developed and implemented coastal habitat permitting programs to regulate development impacts to coastal habitat types such as wetlands, beaches, and sand dunes.

Through the Coastal Zone Enhancement Program's five-year assessments and strategies, states and territories have incentives to enhance their coastal management programs in a wide array of coastal issues of national significance, including wetlands. The Coastal Zone Enhancement Program provides state programs with an opportunity to establish new regulations, policies, and management programs for coastal wetlands. For example, program enhancements could include developing new wetland assessment methodologies, creating a wetlands mitigation program, or adopting new coastal habitat protection standards.

National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS)

sapelo island

Georgia's Sapelo Island NERR contains 4,000 acres of tidal salt marsh, which provides important food, nesting, and nursery habitat for a variety of fish, birds, reptiles, and other animals

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) is a network of 27 estuarine reserves that represent different biogeographic regions across the United States. The NERRS network protects more than 1.3 million acres of coastal and estuarine habitat in 21 coastal states for long-term research, water-quality monitoring, education, and coastal stewardship. The Reserves frequently serve as living laboratories for habitat restoration initiatives. Reserves with pristine habitats are used as reference sites for restoration projects in similar physical settings. Disturbed habitat areas within the Reserves also provide an opportunity for scientific research as well as exploring various habitat restoration techniques.

The NERRS System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) collects data on estuarine water quality, weather, and biological indicators to assess long- and short-term conditions and changes in habitats within the reserves. These data are available for scientists and the public at the Centralized Data Management Office.

In addition, the NERRS Coastal Training Program provides current scientific information and skill-building opportunities to coastal decision-makers on a variety of coastal management topics including habitat mapping, wetlands delineation, and restoration techniques. Through this program, the NERRS can ensure that these decision makers have the knowledge and tools they need to address critical resource management issues.

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Coral Reef Conservation Program

OCRM is one of the NOAA offices that comprise the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. As part of this Program, OCRM works with seven U.S. jurisdictions (Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marina Islands) to conserve and manage U.S. coral reef resources. All seven coral jurisdictions have developed three-year local action strategies to address specific threats to coral reefs. The NOAA Coral Program provides technical assistance and funding to develop and implement these strategies which were developed through collaborative processes involving many different stakeholders and interest groups.

Marine Protected Areas Center

The National Marine Protected Areas Center facilitates the effective use of science, technology, training, and information in the planning, management, and evaluation of the nation's system of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Over the past two decades, MPAs have become a popular conservation and management tool to protect the nation's most important natural and cultural marine resources and habitats. The National MPA Center also works with the Department of the Interior and other agencies and stakeholders to develop a plan for an effective, integrated system of MPAs.

The Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology

The Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET) was established in 1997 as a partnership between the University of New Hampshire and the National Estuarine Reserve System. CICEET serves as a national center for the development and innovative application of environmental technologies and methods for monitoring, managing, and preventing contamination in estuaries and coastal waters. Research projects CICEET has funded include modeling changes in estuarine habitat and developing new restoration and habitat monitoring techniques.

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Great Lakes Wetlands

Lake Erie coastal wetlands along Sandusky Bay in Ohio. Coastal wetlands management is a priority in the Great Lakes states as well as other coastal regions.

Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program

The Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) was established to protect coastal and estuarine lands considered important for their ecological, conservation, recreational, historical or aesthetic values. The program provides funding to acquire coastal land so it will be conserved for the benefit of future generations.

Shoreline Management Technical Assistance Toolbox

Shoreline management decisions can have a significant impact on coastal habitats. OCRM's Shoreline Management Technical Assistance Toolbox promotes management approaches that avoid hard shoreline stabilization structures which can destroy or damage important shoreline habitats, such as wetlands and intertidal beaches. The Toolbox provides coastal managers, local decision makers, and other interested parties with information about and easy access to management tools, case studies, and other resources available for addressing shoreline management issues. The site focuses on management approaches that avoid shoreline hardening, including policy tools (e.g., set backs, planning, shoreline zoning, etc.) and alternative “soft” shoreline stabilization methods (e.g., marsh restoration with breakwater sill).

Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP)

Congress authorized the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) in fiscal year 2001. The purpose of the program was to assist states in mitigating the impacts from outer continental shelf oil and gas development and production. Congress appropriated $150 million in 2001 to seven coastal states—Alabama, Alaska, California, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—and "coastal political subdivisions" within those states, to implement this program. Under the Program, OCRM administers more than 150 separate grants to states and localities. The CIAP funded more than 600 projects including habitat protection and restoration, land acquisition, and water quality improvement projects. Congress reauthorized the program for 2007-2010. The new CIAP is administered by the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

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Measuring Success

Since protecting and restoring coastal habitats are important goals of the CZMA and state coastal management programs, OCRM has worked with our state coastal program partners to develop a suite of coastal habitat performance indicators as part of the CZMA Performance Management System. The indicators will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the national coastal management program at protecting and restoring habitat.

 

 

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