Habitat Conservation and Restoration

Gulf Regional Sediment Management Master Plan (GRSSMP)

ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Habitat conservation and restoration are critical needs throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea region in all of the territories of the United States. Unfortunately, habitat restoration is not keeping pace with the loss and degradation of coastal habitats. Today, it is recognized that sediments are an integral element of a regional system that, through natural processes over time, built and sustained the coastal habitats that provide critical ecosystem services such as storm surge reduction and fisheries production. In order to reverse the decline of habitat and services, restoration activities must make the best use of available sediment resources.  The Habitat Conservation and Restoration Priority Issue Team (HCRT) has acknowledged that sediment resources are integral to accomplishing many Alliance restoration initiatives. There is a need for a better understanding of regional sediment systems and processes to inform decisions about projects and actions that require sediment resources. Developing a sediment management plan will provide guidelines for more effective management of sediment resources, recognizing they are a part of a regional system involving natural processes, dredging, and other human activities.

PROBLEMS
The effects of managing sediment on regional ecological processes are not well understood.  Around the Gulf, sediment, energy and ecological systems are integrated and connected. It is important to find the synergies between sediment management and restoration needs.  The main focuses are typically geared towards dredging and filling operations, however, this is not the only potential source of sediment.  Redirecting the natural flows of sediment, for example, could restore some of the natural processes that build and sustain habitat.  There exists a basic need to understand how sediment flows through the natural systems in relation to regional ecological processes.  With this understanding, we can begin to balance available sediment resources with needs in the context of habitat conservation and restoration.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
The Regional Sediment Management (RSM) approach provides the ability to coordinate and collaborate; integrate numerous tools, technology, and data; leverage funding; and enhance partnerships.  When considering conservation and restoration opportunities it is essential to continually be examining how the RSM approach can be implemented and extended into other projects and shared with other stakeholders.  Implementing RSM as part of normal business practice is critical toward improving sediment management planning, design, and maintenance in a regional context.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES
The Alliance, through the HCRT and partners, initiated the creation of a Gulf Regional Sediment Management Master Plan (GRSMMP) for managing sediment resources on a regional scale. It will emphasize the need for a comprehensive understanding of regional sediment systems and processes. The plan will be beneficial to provide guidelines using the understanding of sediment dynamics (inputs, outputs, movement) to manage sediment resources toward accomplishing environmental restoration, conservation, and preservation, while reducing coastal erosion, storm damages, and associated costs of sediment management. The Plan will also provide an inventory of potential sediment sources in connection with sediment needs. This information will provide a basis for assessing competing needs for sediment, enhance abilities to make informed cooperative management decisions, and develop regional strategies. These focus areas include:

• Ecological Considerations - Examines the relationship between sediment and ecology in the context of RSM to aid in understanding how managing sediment affects regional ecological processes. 
• Sediment Resources - Addresses sediment transport processes, sediment budget issues, and evaluates studies that have been done in terms of how it might support RSM.  Also included are efforts to identify and summarize existing programs, studies, and databases that have been developed that can provide information concerning sediment resources throughout the Gulf.  Focus areas include sediment inventories, sediment budgets, and dredging activities.
• Data Information Management.  Examine ways and opportunities to collaborate and share data throughout all levels of government and the numerous interested stakeholders.
• Policies, Authorities, and Funding.  Identify and examine existing authorities and policies and present recommendations on how they can provide flexibility to facilitate the RSM approach.

CONTACT

Larry Parson
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Mobile District

Ryan Fikes, M.S.
Project Director, HCRT
Gulf of Mexico Foundation

James Pahl, Ph.D.
Louisiana State Lead, HCRT
Office of Coastal Protection & Restoration

Greg DuCote
Louisiana Co-Lead, HCRT
LA Dept of Natural Resources

Sea Level Rise

ISSUE DESCRIPTION

There are many activities that cause stress on the coastal zone lands and waters that border the Northern Gulf of Mexico.  Among them, and one of the most damaging if not understood and taken into consideration, is global climate change-related impacts of sea level rise, storm surges, and hurricanes.  Other current stressors such as unsustainable development, shoreline hardening, habitat fragmentation and destruction have placed the whole of the gulf system under threat.   It is fair, then, to anticipate increased stress from the effects of global climate change and therefore a substantial reduction of the system’s capacity to generate the ecological services we have grown accustomed to enjoy (fishing, coastal protection, nutrient removal, etc.).  Ecosystem services are benefits to people, such as the natural regulation of pollutants and nutrients, provided by natural systems.  Any alteration in the structure and function of these systems will alter the flow of services.  Not all alterations are detrimental, but the art of conservation entails managing them to provide for healthy, productive ecosystems.  If no action is taken, global climate change-related effects of sea level rise, storm surges, and hurricanes will diminish and destroy areas in which the natural systems exist.  Understanding these effects helps us prepare for these alterations and to direct restoration resources prudently.

PROBLEMS
Population has been growing all along the U.S. coasts and the Gulf of Mexico is not the exception.  This growth comes with people living in larger numbers closer and closer to the water line.  As sea level increases in the coming years, many of these properties will tend to be impacted by regular storms and possibly significantly when periodic hurricanes come through the Gulf.  The natural tendency for this is to protect these properties by hardening of the shoreline – building walls and levies and other engineered structures.  Ultimately, what this will cause for the natural system is it will get squeezed between the hard structure and the rising water levels.  This deterioration of marshes (freshwater, brackish, salt), mangroves, seagrasses, and other natural systems will also diminish the natural protection provided by them, further enhancing the danger for coastal communities.  Another large economic driver in the region is tourism which also depends on healthy coastal natural systems.  If these continue to deteriorate, the appeal of the coast will also diminish.  So understanding the potential effects of sea level rise in this scenario is very important for local, state, Federal and private decision makers to make more informed decisions about future investments and current protection schemes.  

WHAT YOU CAN DO
The first thing that responsible citizens can do is stay as informed as possible.  Because science is moving forward rather rapidly on the understanding of potential effects of global climate change, including sea level rise, this knowledge needs to be more and more in the hands of the public to ensure policy makers have public support for science-based decisions.  The best policies are usually enacted and implemented when the public is well informed, shares that knowledge, and participates in the process of decision making.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES
The Alliance’s Habitat Conservation and Restoration (HCRT) and Coastal Community Resilience (CCR) team's mission is to provide leadership to advance improved and increased stewardship of our coastal natural systems. This will benefit the citizens of the Northern Gulf of Mexico region through projects conducted with leading researchers and other partners.The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Among the activities proposed are the following:

• Create and coordinate a Focus Team to address sea level rise.  This team would be comprised of representatives from all five Gulf of Mexico States, federal, academic, and non-governmental organizations, drawing on relationships already established by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance.  The Conservancy functions as facilitator for the team, and provides technical support for project activities.
• Through modeling using SLAMM (Sea Level Rise Affecting Marshes Model), the Alliance seeks to gain practical understanding of localized risks to the environment and to human communities that may result from sea level rise and related hazards like storm surge, storm vulnerability, and salt water intrusion. 
• Using this assessment of risk we will develop regional management tools and/or approaches to enhance the resiliency of Gulf Coast communities through adaptation strategies that consider human and natural communities.
• The Team will select one or more focus areas in each state and develop a process to assess the impacts of sea level rise on that area and the opportunities for mitigation and community resilience in each.  The sites will be chosen to highlight different scenarios and circumstances so that the range of results and recommendations will present overall strategies for mitigating and adapting to the impacts of sea level rise.  The project partners are nearing completion for the first two sites in Jefferson County, Texas and Grand Bay/Petit Bois Island in Mississippi.
• The HCRT has also selected five study areas that encompass six National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) to apply the SLAMM model to.  Projecting the potential impacts of sea level rise to NWRs can help U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to develop long-range and proactive strategies.

CONTACT

Sonia Najera
South Texas/Laguna Madre Program Manager
The Nature Conservancy

Ryan Fikes, M.S.
Project Director, HCRT
Gulf of Mexico Foundation

James Pahl, Ph.D.
Louisiana State Co-Lead, HCRT
Office of Coastal Protection & Restoration

George Ramseur
Mississippi Co-Lead, HCRT
MS Department of

Randy Runnels
Florida Co-Lead, HCRT
FL Dept of Environmental Protection

James Pahl, Ph.D.
HCRT Team Lead
LA Office of Coastal Protection & Restoration

Greg DuCote
Louisiana Co-Lead, HCRT
LA Dept of Natural Resources

U.S.-Mexico Integration
ISSUE DESCRIPTION
The Gulf of Mexico is a resource shared between three nations:  The U.S., Mexico, and Cuba. Because ecosystems and environmental factors do not respect political boundaries, habitat conservation and restoration must be considered and conducted in the context of international collaboration.  Economic development of Gulf resources has been facilitated through an international process that established Exclusive Economic Zones in the Gulf and around the globe.  While respecting those territorial delineations, the Gulf nations must create a forum for developing management mechanisms and strategies in unison to preserve the productivity of the Gulf of Mexico for all.  

CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Historically, the HCRT has endeavored to include professional scientists and resource managers from Mexico in team efforts. Funding through a grant from the EPA Gulf of Mexico Program has allowed the Team to substantially increase these efforts. The Team will be hosting a number of international integration meetings to identify U.S. and Mexican counterparts and establish a network between them. Workshops will include subjects such as policy, funding, land use planning, technology, and others where there is opportunity for collaboration.  Increased understanding of differences and similarities between the countries’ environmental, civil, and social challenges. The workshops provide a basis for long-term relationships to develop and the collaborative network serves as a forum for increased understanding of the challenges and resources shared by the two countries.
U.S. and Mexican participants will identify common objectives for the Gulf as a whole, then formulate strategies together to address them in both countries. The working group has begun to identify key issues based on the GOMA priority issues and will explore additional issues in view of the variation in socio-economic, policy, and environmental contexts of the two countries.  As the international network develops, pilot projects will bring methods and resources from both sides of the border into play to catalyze and confirm collaborative, ecosystem-based management.

CONTACT

Ryan Fikes, M.S.
Coordinator, HCRT
Gulf of Mexico Foundation

James Pahl, Ph.D.
HCRT Team Lead
LA Office of Coastal Protection & Restoration

Greg DuCote
Louisiana Co-Lead, HCRT
LA Dept of Natural Resources

Policy Changes

ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Policies, programs, and regulations that come to bear upon habitat exist that serve conservation and restoration needs, but sometimes they inhibit progress.  Any and all HCRT projects may uncover policy flaws and recommendations, but projects specifically designed for this purpose are warranted and ongoing.  The HCRT has initiated expert analyses of policy regimes at the state, federal, and international levels to develop recommendations to improve conservation of the Gulf of Mexico.  The outputs of those efforts will include recommended changes where appropriate as well as creating collaborative partnerships among a range of government and private interests. Successful policies must be informed by science, legal expertise, and stakeholder engagement.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

The Federal Standard:  The HCRT conducted a series of workshops to examine the role of the Federal Standard in the beneficial use of dredged material for restoration of habitat.  The Federal Standard is a policy that influences the design and implementation of federal dredging projects.  One outcome of the HCRT workshops was a set of recommendations to revise the Federal Standard to, among other things, take ecosystem services into account when assessing the costs and benefits of potential project elements.  That, coupled with increased funding, could reduce the amount of dredged sediment that is disposed of rather than used for habitat restoration.  Bringing experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the table with state resource managers and others produced a well-developed set of policy recommendations that have been submitted to the Alliance Management Team.

State, Federal, and International Policy:  A careful examination of the law at all levels must involve the identification of impediments, challenges, and opportunities.  Such work is being conducted by the HCRT by partnering with environmental law experts who utilize a three-phase approach:  stakeholder engagement, policy analysis, and recommendations development.  Involving stakeholders with a range of relevant interests ensures that problems perceived by those most affected by existing policies are identified.  Legal experts research the underlying laws, rules, and programs to understand the root causes.  This research may also uncover additional problems which can be presented to the stakeholder advisory group.  This approach is important to the ultimate development of practical solutions and recommendations that may also enjoy the support of those who will most be impacted.

The HCRT is currently engaged in the following policy analyses:  Comparison of U.S. and Mexican policies, Improving Conservation and Restoration on Private Lands, and U.S. Federal and Gulf State Policies.  Outputs from all three projects are expected in 2011.

CONTACT

Cherie O’Brien
Texas Co-Lead, HCRT
TX Parks & Wildlife Department

James Pahl, Ph.D.
HCRT Team Lead
LA Office of Coastal Protection & Restoration

Greg DuCote
Louisiana Co-Lead, HCRT
LA Dept of Natural Resources

Mike Smith
Project Coordinator, HCRT
Gulf of Mexico Foundation

Ecosystem Services

ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Environmental, ecological, and economic systems are interdependent and undeniably linked, but are often considered independently.  An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to gain a holistic view of the linkages and processes that drive ecosystem services, sometimes referred to as ecological services.  These are the direct and indirect contributions to human well-being that ecosystems provide.  Healthy ecosystems, for which habitat is key, provide and support a large array of services that affect our quality of life.  The declining trend in ecosystem services is widely accepted but little understood, beyond the obvious and measurable decline in coastal habitat.  Researchers are developing methods that will assess all costs and benefits so that decision makers can take them into consideration.  Historically, that information has been left out of cost-benefit analyses, resulting in decisions based solely on factor which were more obvious and well understood.  Advancing the methodologies for assessing ecosystem services will allow for more efficient outcomes in managing the resources of the Gulf of Mexico.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES
The HCRT has partnered with the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies to study the potential effects of sea level rise on ecosystem services in Galveston Bay, Texas.  Identifying the service flows for each habitat type in the Galveston Bay area, then overlaying sea level rise projections under various scenarios and time frames will provide resource managers and local officials understandable information to base development and conservation decisions on.  Assessing the productivity of ecosystems in terms of ecosystem services offers a view of tangible, and often quantifiable, factors to weigh against traditional economic development parameters.  This can lead to more prudent and efficient outcomes for coastal communities.  In addition to providing good information for Galveston-area officials, the HCRT will use the lessons from this endeavor to promote similar projects around the Gulf.

CONTACT

David Yoskowitz, Ph.D.
Endowed Chair of Socio-Economics
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies

Ryan Fikes, M.S.
Coordinator, HCRT
Gulf of Mexico Foundation

James Pahl, Ph.D.
HCRT Team Lead
LA Office of Coastal Protection & Restoration

Tom Calnan
Texas Co-Lead, HCRT
TX General Land Office