Landscape-scale and ecosystem-based management approaches are being applied by NOAA and partners across the country. The three examples below highlight innovative approaches that are yielding conservation success.
Puget Sound
NOAA is engaged in a suite of landscape-scale initiatives and strategic partnerships in Puget Sound that balance the needs of humans and the environment. These efforts include:
- Collaborating with 14 federal agencies under the Puget Sound Federal Action Plan to protect and restore habitat for salmon, shellfish, and aquatic ecosystems
- Taking a multiple-benefit approach to landscape analysis that considers both economic and ecological results in several watersheds, such as the Farms, Fish, and Flood Initiative in the Skagit watershed
- Working with the State of Washington to update local shoreline-master programs and support a successful Green Shorelines Initiative: encouraging homeowners to use non-armored/softer approaches for protecting shorelines
- Partnering with The Nature Conservancy and others on the Floodplains by Design and Coordinated Investment Strategy to integrate flood management, salmon habitat protection, and community development objectives
Learn more from NOAA Fisheries’ Puget Sound Action Plan.
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary represents a comprehensive approach to seascape and landscape management. We protect one of America’s most diverse biological communities while also providing tourism, diving, recreational fishing, and other uses. Its bountiful resources are more intensely used than any other coastal area in the nation.
The Sanctuary features:
- Scientific, educational, and enforcement programs that monitor and protect the Florida Keys’ natural resources and maintain diverse uses
- Resources and uses that are managed by broad landscape-scale collaborations together with targeted, site-specific management programs (e.g. community-based advisory council, other federal and state agencies)
This multi-agency, stakeholder-based approach is a model for planning the restoration, future use, and protection of complex ocean-watershed environments throughout the United States.
Connect now with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
West Maui Coral Reef Conservation
In West Maui—one of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force’s three Watershed Partnership Initiatives—NOAA works with federal, state, academic, and NGO partners to address three key threats to the coral reef ecosystems: land-based sources of pollution, fishing impacts, and climate change. Specific activities that highlight this ridge-to-reef approach include:
- Developing a watershed management plan for the Wahikuli and Honokōwai watersheds and implementing restoration activities
- Encouraging hotels and businesses to acquire and use reclaimed water to reduce runoff
- Designating the Kahekili Herbivore Fisheries Management Area to address impacts of fishing herbivorous fish on coral reefs and monitoring to assess its effectiveness
- Developing an ecosystem service trade-off tool for Maui’s coral reefs and coastal ecosystems to enable decision-makers to compare outcomes from alternate management scenarios
For more, visit the West Maui Ridge to Reef Initiative.