Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds
Coastal Habitat Protection Plans
Category: Submerged, Intertidal, Wetland, and Upland
Cost: Information not provided.
Description: As part of the Fisheries Reform Act of 1997, the N.C. General
Assembly required the Coastal Resources Commission, Marine Fisheries Commission
and Environmental Management Commission to approve plans to help protect and
restore resources critical to North Carolina's commercial and recreational fisheries.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is developing the
plans, which must protect habitats including wetlands, spawning areas, threatened
and endangered species habitat, primary and secondary nursery areas, shellfish
beds, submerged aquatic vegetation and Outstanding Resource Waters.
The Act directs the three commissions to adopt rules to implement Coastal Habitat
Protection Plans (CHPP). They also must ensure to the maximum extent practicable
that, in carrying out their powers and duties, they act in a manner consistent
with the adopted plans.
The Divisions of Marine Fisheries, Coastal Management and Water Quality, along
with the Wetlands Restoration Program, Wildlife Resources Commission and Shellfish
Sanitation Program, have established a CHPP Development Team.
Outcome: The team will develop plans for 11 different areas, or management
units: Coastal Ocean, Chowan River, Southern Estuaries, Tar-Pamlico River, Roanoke
River, New/White Oak rivers, Albemarle Sound, Core/Bogue Sounds, Neuse River,
Pamlico Sound and Cape Fear River. Each plan will include habitat mapping, status
and trends, threats, and a cumulative impact analysis. The plans also will recommend
research needs and management actions that state regulatory agencies need to
take to protect and restore habitat. All plans will be completed by July 2003,
and then.reviewed and updated every five years.
The CHPP team currently is preparing draft plans for the Chowan River basin
and the Coastal Ocean (the state's coastal waters extending from the beach out
three miles). Public meetings on the two plans were held in the spring, and
the development team should present draft plans to the three commissions in
January.
Prior to the three commissions' review of CHPPs, draft plans will be reviewed
by the Intercommission Review Committee (IRC). Current members of the IRC are
Barbara Garrity-Blake and Willy Phillips from the Marine Fisheries Commission,
Pricey Taylor Harrison and David Beresoff from the Coastal Resources Commission,
and Will Fowler and Pete Peterson from the Environmental Management Commission.
The IRC may, by consensus, revise a plan before submitting it to the Marine
Fisheries Commission, Coastal Resources Commission and Environmental Management
Commission.
Contact: Mike Street, NC Division of Marine Fisheries, P.O. Box 769,
Morehead City, NC, 28557, 252-726-7021, 800-682-2632 (in N.C. only), Mike.Street@ncmail.net
Citation: http://dcm2.enr.state.nc.us/Current%20Issues/habitat%20plans.htm
and http://www.ncfisheries.net/habitat/chpp1.htm
|
