U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell is spearheading a $100 million grant program to fund science-based solutions to restore natural areas along the Atlantic coast.

The Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Competitive Grant Program signifies the latest effort to make good on President Barack Obama's promise to ensure that local communities are protected against future severe weather events. The president outlined this and other goals in the Climate Action Plan, which was published in June 2013.

"By stabilizing marshes and beaches, restoring wetlands, and improving the resilience of coastal areas, we not only create opportunities for people to connect with nature and support jobs through increased outdoor recreation, but we can also provide an effective buffer that protects local communities from powerful storm surges and devastating floods when a storm like Sandy hits," Jewell says. "In cooperation with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation [NFWF], this competitive grant program will fund innovative projects by states, local communities, tribes, non-profit organizations and other partners to rebuild, restore, and research these natural areas along the Atlantic coast."

Grant Administration

The NFWF will administer the grants, for which proposals are already being submitted. Under the program, more than $100 million will be available throughout the region affected by Hurricane Sandy, including Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia—the states that officially declared a natural disaster as a result of the storm event.

"The NFWF will use its network of partners to promote the grant opportunity, aid potential grant applicants in shaping proposals that meet our objectives, and identify opportunities to leverage the $100 million with other funding sources to protect communities," Jewell explains. "I am certain we will see innovative ideas and projects that will help us be much better prepared the next time a superstorm rolls up the coast."

Jewell made the announcement with U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, U.S. Representative Jim Moran, and other local officials last week at National Park Service's Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, where a $24.9 million project will reinvigorate wetlands that are currently receding between 6 and 8 feet each year because of erosion. It is one of 45 restoration and research projects to restore marshes, wetlands and beaches, rebuilding shorelines, and researching the impacts and modeling mitigation of storm surge impacts.

"Dyke Marsh is the largest remaining freshwater tidal marsh in the Washington metropolitan area, providing rich wildlife habitat outdoor recreational opportunities, and critical flood protection for the neighboring community," Jewell says. "With each major storm, we see more and more destabilization and erosion, which threatens both the local community it helps protect and the outdoor recreation it supports. This funding will allow the National Park Service and its partners to reconstruct the marsh and make it more resilient when big storms roll in."

The $25 million allocated to the marsh will be used to design a peninsula and to construct 13 containment cells that will be filled with donated dredge spoil material, allowing vegetation to be planted that will re-establish more than 150 acres of marsh wetland.

The project will protect and restore one of the most popular areas on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which attracted 7.4 million recreational visits in 2011. These visitors pumped $34 million into the local economy and supported a total of 50 jobs.

The Larger Plan

The funding is part of $162 million Jewell announced last Thursday for restoration and resiliency projects under the Hurricane Sandy Supplemental Appropriations Act. This includes $113 million for 25 on-the-ground projects to restore coastal marshes and shoreline, create habitat connectivity, improve flood resilience, and undertake other efforts to protect nearby areas from future storms.

Another $45 million will fund assessments, modeling, coastal barrier mapping, and other research to improve the ability to mitigate and reduce the impacts of powerful storms.

The investments are consistent with President Obama's Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force Strategy Report , as well as the Climate Action Plan (as stated above). The Department of the Interior has already invested $480 million in Hurricane Sandy response and recovery efforts since the storm hit in October 2012.

Implementation of the Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Competitive Grant Program is being closely coordinated with several Department of the Interior bureaus, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Special Reports /

U.S. Secretary Jewell Launches $100M Atlantic Coastal Resiliency Grant Program

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