About the Restoration Center
Restoration is Habitat Forming
The Restoration Center is the only office within NOAA that is solely devoted to restoring the nation’s coastal, marine and migratory fish habitat. By raising public awareness, advancing science-based solutions and educating decision-makers around coastal restoration, we are leading the way for healthy coastal communities.
Our Mission
The Restoration Center believes that habitat restoration and conservation are essential to the future health and sustainability of our nation’s coastal resources and fisheries. Through the Restoration Center’s four core programs, we work with hundreds of partners and local citizens to collaboratively provide the science, communications and policy expertise needed to restore our coastal and marine environment. Our work applies local perspective on national issues and is grounded in first-rate scientific research and data collection. Through these efforts, the Restoration Center fosters environmental stewardship and conservation ethic.
Our Coastal Resources
The U.S., including the island territories, has approximately 90,000 miles of marine tidal shoreline comprised of a wide range of ecologically important, unique, and often highly productive ecosystems. Coastal environments can include coral reefs, seagrass meadows, barrier islands, maritime forests, beaches and rocky shores, tidal flats, and wetlands such as salt or freshwater marshes and mangroves. The most highly productive coastal environments are estuaries, which are the connection between the ocean and inland freshwater systems. Hundreds of estuaries indent the U.S. coast where they provide critical habitat for much of the fish and shellfish production and coastal wildlife diversity of the Nation. For example, 77 percent of U.S. commercial fish landings are comprised of estuarine dependent species. It is along and within estuaries, however, that the greatest human pressures are exerted.
Crowded Coasts
Approximately half the U.S. population lives on or near the coast. That’s approximately 340 people per square mile, more than four times the U.S. average. It is estimated that, by the year 2025, three out of every four Americans will live within an hour's drive of the shoreline. In addition to population pressures, these areas face extraordinary problems related to overharvesting, and recreation, while thousands of oil spills, ship groundings, toxic chemical releases and other disasters also affect marine habitats each year. These existing risks are only expected to increase. Consequently, the importance of restoring coastal and marine habitats cannot be overstated. Habitat restoration provides the tools to replace and repair habitats that have been degraded and lost due to human activities and natural disasters.
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