Publications:
ANEP Update
October
2001
NEP
NEWS
The
New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) is pleased to announce
that its "Management Plan" for New Hampshire's estuaries
received official EPA approval in September 2001. The Plan
includes 98 Actions designed to protect, enhance, and restore
the state's estuarine resources. The Plan will be soon be
available via the New Hampshire NEP website soon. For more
information or to obtain a copy of the Plan please contact
Sally Soule at: (603) 433-7187 or e-mail sally.soule@rscs.net.
On
behalf of all Alabamians and the Mobile Bay National Estuary
Program, Governor Don Siegelman submitted the Comprehensive
Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) to the Honorable Christine
Todd Whitman, Administrator of the US Environmental Protection
Agency, on October 10, 2001. The plan was reviewed and
approved by State and regional agencies. It was determined
to be consistent with the Alabama Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources Coastal Zone Management Program. Further,
the plan was offered for public comment throughout the Mobile
Bay NEP study area in 13 separate community meetings. The
43,662 square mile Mobile Bay watershed encompasses two-thirds
of the state of Alabama as well as receiving waters from Georgia,
Tennessee, and Mississippi. Implementation of the CCMP should
prove to establish a model for regional environmental cooperation.
Estuary
Project Director Job Advertisement: The Casco Bay National Estuary
Project (CBNEP), housed at the University of Southern Maine,
is seeking candidates for the position of Director. The position will be part-time beginning in
January and then move to a full-time position in July. During that six-month period the new Director
will work with the present Director until she retires in July. Review of applications will begin on November
13th, 2001 and continue until position is filled. For
more information about the CBNEP and for a complete job description
log on to www.cascobayestuary.org.
Puget
Sound Nearshore Estuarine Restoration Project - In recent
years, Washington State, local Puget Sound governments, and Northwest
tribes have realized the importance of eelgrass beds, kelp
forests, salt marshes, beaches, backshore areas and bluffs
to sustaining Puget Sound.
These Nearshore Habitats have gained even more attention
as important migratory corridors for juvenile salmon and spawning
grounds for forage fish such as surf smelt and herring.
Building on local efforts, the US Army Corps of
Engineers initiated a unique partnership with state
and local governments and tribes that will lead to a
clearer picture of how nearshore habitats work and identify
regions and sites in the Sound for habitat restoration and
enhanced levels of protection. For more information on The Puget Sound Nearshore
Estuarine Restoration Project, contact Duane Fagergren, 360-407-7303
or email dfagergren@psat.wa.gov.
The second
annual Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership Kids
for the Columbia Family Festival was held September 28-30,
2001 and included a two day volunteer monitoring event, a
Founders dinner, a Family Festival, and presentation of the
first annual Stewardship awards. Over 500 volunteers monitored
over 100 sites on the Columbia River and its tributaries as
part of the first annual two-day Volunteer Snapshot Water
Quality Monitoring Event.
For many monitored sites, this was the first data collected
that will be tracked annually.
Citizen groups, school children, organizations, and
agency volunteers were on the river from the Bonneville Dam
to the mouth of the Columbia. Over 120 people attended the Estuary Partnership Founder's Dinner
and auction which raised over $29,000 for Estuary Partnership
educational programs. Congressional delegation members, including
Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Washington Congressman
Brian Baird, and staff from Oregon Congressman David Wu's
office were in attendance and were honored for their continued
support of the Estuary Partnership. Family Festival weekend
concluded with the Family Festival picnic on September 30th. Over 150 people came out to celebrate the Columbia River, including
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and First Lady Sharon Kitzhaber
and their son Logan. Featured
children's entertainer, John Farrell entertained and inspired
Family Festival attendees with such songs as "Habitat,
Habitat" and "Rock 'n Roll for Mother
Earth."
Jim
Perdue, Chairman of Perdue Farms, Inc., one of the nation's
largest poultry companies, appeared before the Center for
the Inland Bays' Board of Directors to present his company's
plans for developing a "model watershed" for Delaware's Inland
Bays. This project
is a result of the Memorandum of Understanding agreed to by
the five major poultry companies in Delaware and the Delaware
Nutrient Management Commission.
Maryland
Coastal Bays Shellfish Plan looks at Clamming - A new
Hard Clam Fishery Management Plan for Maryland's coastal bays
is designed to conserve the coastal bay stock, its ecological
and socio-economic value, and its long-term health. After
six months of work, the Coastal Bays Fisheries Advisory Committee,
made up of commercial and recreational fishermen and scientists,
released the plan for public comment in September 2001. Currently
there are 3,000 commercial clammers licensed to work in the
coastal bays. Over the past 10 years, there have been a maximum
of about 48 coastal bays clammers. In its current form, the
plan reduces the total allowable numbers of clammers from
3,000 licensees to 22. This number was derived after six months
of debate from both sides on the issue. The literature review in the plan shows that wintertime turbidity
and sedimentation from commercial clamming may be largely
mitigated by the physical dynamics of the coastal bays ecosystem
as well as the characteristics of the benthic faunal community
that has developed under such conditions. To obtain copies of the plan call DNR at (410)
260-8261 or MCBP at (410) 213-BAYS or e-mail. The
plan will take effect in September 2002.
The Mobile
Bay NEP is pleased to announce participation in the National
Atmospheric Deposition Program. In June 2001, the Mobile
Bay NEP began operation of two wet deposition mercury and
nutrient monitors. It is the State of Alabama's first
to measure pollution deposited through rainwater. The
data gathered within the Mobile Bay NEP study area will be
incorporated with information from some 250 monitoring sites
from Alaska and the continental United States to Puerto Rico
and the Virgin Islands. A truly collaborative effort, monitoring
partners include the Mobile Bay NEP, the Alabama Department
of Environmental Management, and Mobile and Baldwin Counties.
The Mobile Bay NEP purchased the equipment and is funding
the initial sample analyses through a federal grant. Expansion
of the program will occur through monetary allocations in
the Coastal Impact Assistance Program during 2002. The Mobile
Bay NEP is the only estuary program on the Gulf Coast participating
in the NADP.
MEETINGS
The ANEP/NEP/EPA Fall Meeting will be held November
7 - 10, 2001 in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Interesting sessions
and discussions will include: "Sustaining Stakeholder Involvement
in NEPs - including NEPs' Policy and Management Leaders, Citizen
Group Leaders, and Local Government Leaders"; "Restoring Estuaries
and Watersheds in the Gulf of Mexico Region"; and Tracking
Implementation of CCMPs". For a Registration form and other
information please e-mail drvolk@erols.com or visit www.anep-usa.org
The Tampa
Bay Estuary Program is sponsoring a Water Budget Workshop
on December 4-5, 2001 at the Florida Marine Research Institute
in St. Petersburg, Florida. The workshop will assess freshwater
inflows and outflows to and from Tampa Bay, and identify potential
impacts on the bay system of changes in the water budget.
Presentations and discussions will include: weather and climate
change; circulation and exchange with the Gulf of Mexico;
proposed water supply projects that may affect the bay; the
potential need for establishing a minimum flow for the bay;
priority issues and gaps in knowledge. Results of the workshop
will provide bay managers with a greater understanding of
freshwater inflows and nutrient loadings to the bay. The
registration fee of $30 includes lunches and a CD-Rom containing
workshop presentations. For more information, contact Holly
Greening at (727) 893-2765 or e-mail hgreening@tbep.org.
