NOAA AWARDS ALMOST $800,000 TO MASSACHUSETTS
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management has received a grant for nearly $800,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for support of the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department.

The Waquoit Bay NERR, located on Cape Cod, is operated through the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management. The funds from this grant are for the Reserve’s fiscal year 2003 operations and management, research and monitoring, education and stewardship programs.

“NOAA and the Bush Administration are working to improve the understanding of our environment to strengthen local and regional initiatives such as the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “This grant to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management will help advance research and management knowledge critical to those efforts.”

The Waquoit Bay Reserve provides long-term protection to the habitat and resources of this representative estuarine ecosystem, which serves as a natural laboratory for research. The Reserve works, through partnerships, to make the resulting information available to the public and policy makers as a means to promote informed coastal decision making for this site, as well as similar sites in the same biogeographic region.

Each year, NOAA awards approximately $900 million in grants 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 the past 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.

On the Web:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: http://www.noaa.gov.

National Estuarine Research Reserve System: http://nerrs.noaa.gov/

Conrad C. Lautenbacher: http://www.noaa.gov/lautenbacher.html

Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve: http://nerrs.noaa.gov/WaquoitBay/welcome.html