Along many Great Lakes shorelines, land use change, shoreline alterations, and coastal infrastructure have resulted in a loss of coastal biodiversity and ecological resilience. Restoration of these shorelines will require an integrated systems approach, applied at scale, to identify specific nearshore management goals and place-based actions that will restore coastal biodiversity and ecological resilience.
To complement ongoing work under the nearshore framework, NOAA, USACE and all eight Great Lakes coastal states will host a series of meetings and workshops aimed at identifying shared coastal management principles and goals (within each state and possibly across states). These partners will develop a list of available data and resources (for each state) for which to focus site-specific restoration work and provide a list of reach-by-reach coastal and nearshore habitat restoration projects for funding in FY21 and beyond. Such projects will target nearshore habitat benefits for lake trout, walleye, lake sturgeon, yellow perch, cisco, and migratory birds and ducks.
Additionally, NOAA and the partners will seek to collect high priority data sets as a phase two of this project work, should the workshops identify critical littoral data gaps that must be filled prior to on-the-ground restoration work proceeding in the out years.
Funding:
FY2024: $2,100,000
FY2023: $2,100,000
FY2022: $1,800,000
FY2021: $1,290,000
FY2020: $280,000
FY2018: $650,000
Contact:
Chiara.Zuccarino-crowe@noaa.gov
Other partners:
Coastal States Organization, the eight NOAA-approved Great Lakes Coastal Management Programs, and LimnoTech