Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 219, November 15, 2010, Pages 69571-69850 Page: 69,624
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Federal Register/Vol. 75, No. 219/Monday, November 15, 2010/Notices
Integrating with public-private
partnerships is a central theme of the
Act and a critical part of this Strategy.
Currently, hundreds of existing public/
private partnerships direct significant
portions of their resources to the
restoration of estuarine habitat
throughout the United States. In
addition, many of these ecosystem level
partnerships currently incorporate
climate change adaptation components
into their own ongoing activities.
Although too numerous to list, a few
examples include the National Fish
Habitat Action Plan, National Waterfowl
Management Plan Joint Ventures, the
National Estuary Program, the National
Estuarine Research Reserve System, and
Fish and Wildlife Service Landscape
Conservation Cooperatives, as well as
many projects implemented by both the
NRCS and USACE and their partners.
To maximize public-private
partnerships, the Council will prioritize
funding to projects that collaborate
among public agencies and private
organizations during the
implementation of estuary restoration
projects.
Ecosystem Level Approach
This Strategy recognizes that
successful estuary restoration projects
with multiple goals will improve
ecosystem function. In its review of
project proposals, the Council will
support projects developed in an
ecosystem context with multiple
benefits and those that utilize natural
processes to restore and maintain
estuary habitat. Restoration projects
should be designed using an ecosystem
or watershed approach to establish a
self-sustaining area that provides the
structure and function necessary to
support the many interrelated physical,
biological, and chemical components of
healthy estuarine habitats.
Regional Ocean Governance and
National Ocean Policy
The Act encourages coordination
among all levels of government in order
to address issues of estuarine habitat
loss and degradation. The Council
recognizes that there are a variety of
regional governance structures whose
efforts contribute significantly to estuary
restoration, including the Gulf of
Mexico Alliance, Northeast Regional
Ocean Council, West Coast Governor's
Agreement on Ocean Health, Mid-
Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean,
and the South Atlantic Alliance. There
are many existing Federal programs
actively involved in the protection,
restoration and science of estuaries that
work with the regional governancestructures. It is the goal of the Council
to foster cooperation between
government agencies at the Federal,
State, and local levels, and that project
proponents seeking funding from the
Act collaborate on the ground with any
existing local governance structures. In
addition, the Council will reach out to
non-ERA Federal agencies to encourage
collaboration and support of the goals of
the Act.
This coordination is in accordance
with the Act and complements the
Administration's National Ocean Policy,
which includes a set of overarching
guiding principles for management
decisions and actions. The Council
recognizes that the principles and
objectives of this Strategy will aid the
National Ocean Council in
implementation of the Policy and
Implementation Strategy. In particular,
this Strategy supports Priority Objective
5: Resiliency and Adaptation to Climate
Change and Ocean Acidification and
Priority Objective 6: Regional Ecosystem
Protection and Restoration.
Objectives of the Estuary Restoration
Act Strategy
The following paragraphs describe the
objectives of this Strategy.
Restore Estuarine Habitats in a Manner
That Allows for Adaptation to Stressors
Associated With Climate Change
Coastal and marine habitats are
already experiencing effects of climate
change and will continue to be among
the first and most obvious areas to suffer
damage as changes continue to occur.
The Council recognizes that by
increasing and protecting the amount of
available habitat, restoration projects
will account for many environmental
stressors on estuarine species and
increase the habitats' ability to adapt to
changing climate conditions. Examples
could include projects that increase the
amount of available salt marsh habitat to
buffer against sea level rise or a fish
passage barrier removal project that
increases available cool water habitat
that will benefit anadromous fish.
Build Conservation Partnerships
In order to maximize public-private
partnerships, the Council encourages
collaboration among public agencies,
private organizations, companies, and
individuals (e.g., private landowners,
hunters, birders, and fishermen) in
restoration efforts. This connectivity
encourages private organizations,
companies, landowners and others to
bring their resources (financial or in-
kind) to the table to assist in planning
and implementing successful restorationprojects.
The Council particularly encourages
the use of existing partnerships and
planning entities to carry out this
Strategy, including the regional ocean
governance structures.
Support Innovative Restoration
Technology
The Act provides a financial incentive
for the use of innovative technology or
approaches by increasing the Federal
share of the cost for the incremental
increase in project cost due to the use
of innovative technology. The Council
encourages project planners to develop
innovative technology as they design
restoration projects. Additionally,
project planners are encouraged to
develop unique and innovative
technologies that are designed with
climate change adaption in mind. The
Council recognizes that there is less risk
involved when funding restoration
projects that utilize familiar techniques,
since there is a higher degree of
certainty that the project will result in
the desired outcomes. However, the Act
emphasizes the need to support projects
that utilize innovative technology and,
therefore, the Council will prioritize
projects that propose untested
techniques that appear to be based on
scientifically-sound assumptions. The
Council will consider technology
"innovative" if it involves a new
process, technique, or material or uses
existing processes, techniques, or
materials in a new application or habitat
type.
Enhance Monitoring Capabilities
Monitoring is important for a number
of reasons. It allows practitioners to
track success and determine which
methodologies are successful, which are
most cost effective, when adaptive
management is required and when more
information is required prior to
implementing restoration. By closely
tracking progress at the project level,
restoration practitioners and
policymakers can determine whether
individual projects contribute to
meeting the goals of estuary and
regional restoration plans, and tally
habitat acreage restored at a national
scale.
The Act recognizes the importance of
monitoring to the success of any
estuarine restoration program. It
requires NOAA, in consultation with
the Council, to establish monitoring
requirements for projects funded under
the Act. Those standards may be found
at: http://www.era.noaa.gov/
information/monitor.html. They are
based on NOAA's two-volume Science-
Based Restoration Monitoring of CoastalHabitats, which provides standard data
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United States. Office of the Federal Register. Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 219, November 15, 2010, Pages 69571-69850, periodical, November 15, 2010; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52800/m1/62/?rotate=90: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.