State Success Story

Owned and managed by Lake Metroparks, the Lake Erie Bluffs provides approximately 600 acres of lakefront property that permanently protects valuable coastal wetlands, meadow and 9,000 feet of undeveloped Lake Erie shoreline.
To learn more, please click here.  

 
Lake Erie Bluffs Acquisition  

At the Agencies

Visitors to NOAA's Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and the immediate area boosted the region's economy with $102 million in spending, supporting nearly 1,200 jobs and generating $46 million in local income for business owners and employees in 2014, according to a NOAA analysis using the most recent figures available.
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In the News
 
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and Wells Fargo (WFC) today (Feb 16) announced the launch of the Resilient Communities grant program. Through a commitment from Wells Fargo of $10 million over the next four years, this new program will improve natural resources and enhance local capacity to help communities prepare for expected impacts associated with water quantity and quality issues, forest conservation challenges, and sea-level rise.
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The ongoing global change causes rising ocean temperatures and changes the ocean circulation. Therefore less oxygen is dissolved in surface waters and less oxygen is transported into the deep sea. This reduction of oceanic oxygen supply has major consequences for the organisms in the ocean. Scientists have now published the most comprehensive analysis on oxygen loss in the world's oceans and their cause so far.
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In the States and Regions 
 
East Coast 

After nearly two years of meetings with experts in the fishing industry, environmental scientists and engineers, elected officials and business owners along the four coastal counties, and two public dredging forums and a collection of White Papers prepared by the Dredging Working Group, their efforts took a step forward Jan. 30, when Senate Bill No. 2369, passed from the Senate Subcommittee.
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Who's Still Fighting Climate Change? The U.S. Military. Ten times a year, the Naval Station Norfolk floods. The entry road swamps. Connecting roads become impassable. Crossing from one side of the base to the other becomes impossible. Dockside, floodwaters overtop the concrete piers, shorting power hookups to the mighty ships that are docked in the world's largest naval base.
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Gulf Coast 

The disaster of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 made clear how vulnerable New Orleans and the low-lying communities along the Gulf Coast are to fierce storms and surging seas. So, a master plan was devised to shore up defenses and repair the sinking coastline that protects the city. Now, authorities have released an updated $50 billion, 50-year plan that rethinks and bolsters those defenses.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District awarded a small business contract in the amount of $5,343,380 to Crosby Dredging LLC to conduct maintenance dredging at the Houston Ship Channel between Sims Bayou and the Turning Basin in Harris County, Texas.
West Coast and Pacific Islands 

On February 11, Aua ( American Samoa) was the first village to complete their second challenge of the Fautasi Coastal Challenge, a set of five challenges that highlight "our rich cultural traditions, coastal resources, and our dependence on people, air, land and sea for economic and cultural security," according to the Department of Commerce.
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As California reels from record-breaking erosion following punishing waves last winter, the federal government is turning to mud and sand from dredging projects to slow land losses and ease flooding nationwide as seas rise and storms intensify. Pacific Ocean storms strengthened by a powerful El Niño and global warming caused yawning erosion from Washington state to California a year ago. The problem was severe in the San Francisco Bay Area, where unprecedented beach losses were worsened by a shortage of shore-nourishing mud and sand that flows from mountain valleys to beaches through rivers and bays.
State Representative Angus McKelvey (D-10, West Maui, Māʻaleaea, North Kīhei) says essential maintenance dredging of Lahaina Harbor has been approved and is moving forward with an expected completion by the end of the year.
According to McKelvey, the US Army Corps of Engineers has issued a conditional permit to begin the essential emergency maintenance dredging of the Lahaina Small Boat Harbor in order to ensure that the channel, which has been shoaling recently creating a hazard to boat users, can be cleared starting in May.
Great Lakes
Ohio's blueprint for combating the algae in Lake Erie that has become a threat to drinking water calls for targeting specific watersheds and developing a monitoring network within the next year. The strategy - first released last May and finalized just this past week - outlines how Ohio plans to reach its goal of sharply cutting the phosphorus runoff feeding the algae.
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Announcements & More   
 
Save the Date: Workshop on Best Management Practices for Atlantic Offshore Wind Facilities and Marine Protected Specie 
 
BOEM's Office of Renewable Energy Programs is hosting a three-day "Best Management Practices Workshop for Atlantic Offshore Wind Facilities" on
March 7- 9. The workshop will discuss best management practices for preventing, reducing, and monitoring impacts to marine protected species from the development of offshore wind on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf.
The workshop will take place at: NOAA Fisheries 
Building 4 (Science Building) 
1315 East-West Highway 
Silver Spring, MD 20910
For more details, please click here.

DOI's latest NEWSWAVE Fall 2016/Winter 2017 issue was released January! 
To read the most recent news from the U.S Department of Interior: Ocean, Great Lakes and Coasts, click here. 
 
OneNOAA Science Seminars, 2017  

Title: Building Resilient Coral Reefs: Harnessing natural variability, assessing flood risk reduction, and restoration at an ecosystem scale    
Date & Time:  Thu, February 23, 2017 - 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET

Title: Following my Dreams 
Date & Time: Thu, February 23, 2017 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm ET

Title: NOAA Marine Debris Program-funded Microplastic Research and Current Research Priorities 
Date & Time: Thu, April 13 - 1pm - 2 pm

Title: He'eia National Estuarine Research Reserve
Date & Time: May 11, 2017 - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET
 
Seminars are open to the public. For remote access, location, abstracts and more, visit the OneNOAA Science Seminar Calendar at:   http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/seminars/ 
Seminars are posted in Eastern Time and subject to changes without notice; please check the web page for the latest seminar updates.   

 

The Voice of the Coastal States and Territories on Ocean, Coastal & Great Lakes Affairs

 

The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent or reflect the views of CSO.