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ANEP Update

February 2003

LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS

FY03 Appropriations and FY04 Budget Request. On February 13, 2003 the House and Senate passed the FY03 Omnibus Appropriations bill (S. Amdt. 1, P.L. 108-7), which was later signed by the President on February 20.  The NEP received $24.521 million for FY03.  This is the same as the FY02 level, because Congress incorporated EPA accounting changes proposed for FY03.  (i.e. It is not a $2 million increase.) In addition, on February 3, 2003, the President transmitted his FY04 budget request to Congress.  The FY04 request for the NEPs is $19,094,000, or $152,000 less than the President's Budget request for FY03 of $19,246,000, and $5.4 million less than the FY03 NEP appropriation. 

NEP NEWS

Since 1991, the Delaware Estuary Program's Minigrant Program has awarded more than 100 grants.  This year priority was given to projects that involved habitat restoration, enhancement, and/or protection of the natural resources in the Delaware Estuary.  The projects or activities funded must implement one or several of the CCMP's seventy-seven action items.  Thirty-three impressive proposals requesting more than $124,000 were submitted by organizations from throughout the Delaware Estuary Region.  A total of $46,300 was approved for distribution.  For more information please call 1-800-445-4935.
 
  Long Island Sound Study's Signing event, December 4th. Photographed left to right are, Arthur J. Rocque Jr., Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Erin M. Crotty, Commissioner, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Robert W. Varney, Administrator, EPA New England, Jane M. Kenny, Administrator, EPA Region II.

The Long Island Sound Study's (LISS) Policy Committee met on December 4, 2002 at the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium in Connecticut to sign a new Long Island Sound Agreement. The vision for this agreement is to restore Long Island Sound to ecological health by 2014, the 400th Anniversary of Adrian Block's exploration of Long Island Sound. To make progress towards this vision the Committee has set clear goals and targets and are encouraging everyone - federal, state, interstate, local governments, businesses, schools and universities, and citizens - around the Sound to meet them. This event reaffirmed the strong bi-state support for implementing the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) that was expressed by Connecticut Governor Rowland and New York Governor Pataki when they signed the 1996 Long Island Sound Agreement. The Long Island Sound 2003 Agreement will continue to set additional targets and time frames for addressing toxic contaminants and pathogens, watershed management, preserving open space, protecting living resources and their habitats and community involvement and education.

The San Francisco Estuary Project (SFEP) recently awarded a total of  $111,000 through its Small Grant Program. These one-year grants range from $3,000 to $10,000 and will fund 17 projects representing the entire Bay Area.  We reviewed a total of 30 excellent proposals, amounting to over $200,000 in requested funding.  The projects selected for funding include many education and outreach efforts, such as a Canoes in Sloughs watershed education program, Wetlands and Woodlands Discovery Program, and Urban Creek Restoration Environmental Education Program, as well as wetland and creek restoration projects and environmental education publications, such as the Bay Institute's "The Bay-Delta Ecological Scorecard". 

Albemarle-Pamlico - Amy Sauls, an educator at the Rachel Carson National Estuarine Research Reserve in Beaufort, NC has been named Informal Educator of the Year by the Mid-Atlantic Marine Education  Association (MAMEA). The association honored Sauls for her body of work, which includes integrating education with resource management; developing teachers to be leaders in marine; coastal and environmental science; forming partnerships with state, federal and private agencies for teacher training; and enhancing classroom learning through Estuary Live, an Internet-based education program.

Authentic experiences have been tougher to find for the car traveler along the East Coast as cookie-cutter subdivisions, hotel conglomerates, and restaurant chains have homogenized the natural and cultural diversity that once existed in the East.  To help take advantage of the assets still hanging on, a coalition of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program Worcester County, the National Park Service, Salisbury Zoo, the Nature Conservancy, Maryland DNR, and business owners from the shore have devised a plan to augment nature tourism.  With federal funding that Senators Mikulski and Sarbanes helped secure, the group, collectively known as Delmarva Low Impact Tourism Experiences or DLITE, will help create the infrastructure needed to have meaningful ecotourism.  A Cape to Cape Birding Trail, which develops and markets a birding route from Cape May, NJ to Cape Charles, VA, will be a highlight along with a Delmarva Biking Trail and kayaking trails replete with maps, trail marking, and stops at places of historic and ecological significance. In the coming years, DLITE will offer hotel training seminars to teach hotel/motel owners and managers the latest in water and energy conservation and nature-friendly grounds keeping. 

The Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership has awarded its 2002 mini-grants, making a total of $422,880 awarded funding 47 projects over the past 6 years.  A total of $70,400 was awarded this winter for 10 projects including funding to:  1) a community radio to produce eight - one hour radio shows; 2) undertake water quality monitoring for basic parameters at 18 sites in the Clatskanie River sub basin; 3) support the development of interpretive materials; 4) expand on the regional erosion award program; 5) restore 118 acres of spruce swamp, tidal

riparian, and forested flood plain on the Deep River; 6) build a handicap accessible trail to an in-stream restoration site on a tributary of the Washougal River; 7) restore a two acre riparian area along the Willamette River with native vegetation; 8) the  G.R.E.A.T Kids project to continue an environmental awareness program for students in the Ridgefield area; 9) to monitor the water quality changes that result from improving tidal flows to backwater areas that have been cut off by tide gates, dikes, etc.; and 10) a project that works in biodiversity, history, base map, project documentation, outreach, and the wood duck project. 

On March 1st, 2003, the Galveston Bay Estuary Program (GBEP) partnered with the Texas Cooperative Extension to host the 4th annual WaterSmart Landscaping Workshop. More than a dozen local experts will present workshops  on topics such as Xeriscapes,  organic gardening, rainwater harvesting, water gardening and landscape design. Keynote speakers, author Malcolm Beck, will discuss organic gardening methods, and Heidi Sheesley, owner of Treesearch Farms, will talk about WaterSmart plant selection. This workshop was designed to provide information to the public on urban non‑point source (NPS) pollution reduction and the maintenance of healthy watershed health through conservation design.  Visit the Watersmart website: www.watersmart.cc/watersmart.html

Center for the Inland Bays' (Delaware Inland Bays Estuary Program) staff participated in the 4th annual meeting of the Delaware Invasive Species Council (DISC) recently held in Dover, Delaware.  Dr. Bruce Richards, Executive Director of the CIB, provided a presentation concerning the Vietnamese "Nuclear Worm" (an imported worm from southeast Asia used as fish bait that can reach a length of six feet) and Eric Buehl, Habitat Coordinator, spoke to the group about potential introductions of non-indigenous species by the pet trade. In addition, Dr. Richards was reelected by DISC to serve another term as Chair of the council.  The CIB is also currently constructing a DISC web site that can be accessed at www.udel.edu/DISC.

 
   

Hampton Harbor in New Hampshire is located about 45 miles northeast of Boston and is known as the State's best bet for harvesting soft-shell clams; at least during some years. In the past 30 years the Hampton Harbor flats have experienced dramatic peaks and valleys in its clam populations ranging from a high of 27,000 bushels in 1997 to lows less than 1,000 bushels in 1978 and 1987. Overharvesting was suspected as the cause of these fishery crashes; however, recent examinations suggest that there may be more to the story.  In 2001 the New Hampshire Estuaries Project awarded University of Maine at Machias researcher Dr. Brian Beal funding to "determine the cause(s) of juvenile soft-shell clam mortality in the Hampton/Seabrook Estuary".  Dr. Beal conducted field research at three clam-flats in Hampton

 
   

Harbor from November 2001 to July 2002.  To understand what was happening to juvenile clams, Dr. Beal placed hatchery-reared, juvenile clams into six-inch plastic plant pots that were filled with sediments from each flat and buried to their rims. Half the pots were stocked with a high density of clams to determine whether crowding affected survival. To assess the effects of predation Dr. Beal placed flexible plastic netting over some of the pots to exclude predators.  Dr. Beal collared other pots with netting that extended about 1 inch above the rim to contain clams dislodged by sediment erosion.  In total 720 pots were placed in the harbor from November through mid-July.  The carefully crafted design also addressed potential differences in clam growth and survival with respect to tidal height. In addition to these field experiments, wild and experimental clams were tested for hematopoietic neoplasia, a common clam disease.

MEETINGS & CONFERENCES

The NEP/EPA National Meeting will be held in Washington D.C. at the Hilton Washington Embassy Row Hotel between March 16 - 20, 2003.  ANEP's Board of Directors and Executive Committee meetings will be held on Sunday, March 16, 2003.  Please visit the ANEP website at: www.anep-usa.org for all related registration forms, agendas, and other meeting information.  Presentations will be made by a representative of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and NOAA's Community Based Restoration Center, as well as by many National Estuary Directors on topics of interest to coastal resource managers.