NOAA AWARDS $2.3 MILLION TO OHIO DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has granted $2.3 to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for their Coastal Zone Management Program. NOAA is an agency of the Commerce Department.

This award will fund the Ohio Coastal Management Program (OCMP). The OCMP is designed to integrate management of Ohio's Lake Erie coastal area in order to preserve, protect, develop, restore and enhance its valuable and sometimes vulnerable resources.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is the lead agency for the program, which it cooperates with other state agencies and political subdivisions in implementing the OCMP through a networked approach.

“This NOAA grant supports and helps create programs that reinforce the Bush Administration’s commitment to the environment in Ohio,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

The Coastal Management Program is a federal-state partnership dedicated to comprehensive management of the nation’s coastal resources, ensuring their protection for future generations while balancing competing national economic, cultural and environmental interests.

The Coastal Zone Management Program (CZMP) is authorized by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 and administered at the federal level by the Coastal Programs Division (CPD) within NOAA.

So far this year, NOAA has awarded more than 186 grants totaling $65 million to members of the academic, scientific and business communities to assist the agency in fulfilling its mission to study the Earth’s natural systems in order to predict environmental change, manage ocean resources, protect life and property, and provide decision makers with reliable scientific information. NOAA goals and programs reflect a commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation for 33 years.

The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. To learn more about NOAA, please visit http://www.noaa.gov.