Coastal Zone Initiative

Mike Molnar

Director, Coastal Zone Initiative

Overview

Healthy ecosystems and vibrant wildlife populations are critical to ensuring that human communities thrive. The Coastal Zone Initiative (CZI) is committed to addressing these issues and working toward maintaining and restoring resilient habitats that benefit wildlife and people. Manomet CZI works to increase the Beneficial Use of Dredged Material (BUDM) for habitat restoration and resource protection in the US. For decades dredged materials were simply viewed as a “Spoil” and something that need to be disposed. An effort is underway to treat these sediments as a resource to nourish our coasts and associated habitats. We facilitate conversations among Federal, State, Local, and NGO partners to identify lessons learned, challenges and opportunities for coastal habitat restoration.

Team

Manomet partners with numerous entities such as state and federal authorities (State Coastal Management Programs, US Army Corps of Engineers, United States Fish and Wildlife Service), and nongovernmental organizations (Audubon South Carolina, Pew Charitable Trusts, The Nature Conservancy, Maine Coastal Heritage Trust, Coastal States Organization, etc.) to ensure that the Atlantic Coast continues to support habitat vital to the recovery of depleted shorebird populations including Manomet’s Flagship species in the region, Ruddy Turnstone, American Oystercatcher, and Hudsonian Whimbrel, and a vibrant resilient coast.

Manomet’s work on the Coastal Zone Initiative is led by Mike Molnar, Director of the Initiative, and Brad Winn, Vice President of Resilient Habitats. Funding support: Manomet Conservation Sciences, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation – National Coastal Resilience Funds, Wildlife Conservation Society – Climate Adaptation Fund, and R. Howard Dobbs, Jr. Foundation

Goals

Improve Coastal Ecosystem Health and Resiliency: Help protect coastal communities and build depleted shorebird habitat with advanced applications of dredge material to expand restoration of critical coastal habitats while reducing community risks from sea level rise and storms.
Facilitate Improved Coastal Knowledge Capacity for Shorebird Recovery: Highlight Beneficial Use of Dredge Materials (BUDM) habitat restoration project successes, cost and funding source information, long term habitat value, and associated coastal risk reduction, in a manner that promotes adoption of practices and increases future BUDM usage for coastal shorebird habitat restoration and coastal community hazard reduction.
Capacity Building: Support state capacity for future work. Help State partners identify BUDM opportunities and work with US Army Corps of Engineers on implementation.

Products

Restoration Project Case Studies:

Manomet Conservation Sciences worked with Coastal States Organization and numerous partners to develop case studies on coastal restoration projects that beneficially use dredged materials to improve ecological habitat function and reduce coastal risk. The intent of these case studies is to highlight the excellent work conducted by partners and showcase the planning and process so that others may leverage this information for their own projects. The projects encompass a variety of restoration techniques, sediment types, and geographic locations.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (MD)

Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary (SC)

Deal Island (MD)

Hale’iwa Small Boat Harbor (HI)

Hickory Cove Marsh (TX)

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge (DE)

Informational Webinars:

Manomet and Coastal States Organization staff developed a set of informational webinars highlighting some of the restoration work performed in the case studies, and technical webinars addressing policy, practice, and other items in support of increasing the beneficial use of dredge materials for coastal restoration practices. A brief description of webinar and a link to the recording is included below:

Restoration and Beneficial Use of Dredge Material – Focus on US Army Corps of Engineers Policies, Practices, and Opportunities. Speakers: Dr. Katie Brutsché is the Beneficial Use Program Manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Laurel Reichold, Director of the Regional Sediment Management, Center of Expertise for the South Atlantic Division (SAD) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
https://youtu.be/A5cdr1yNoxs February 9, 2024
The Small Sit – Coastal Dredging: Restoration Opportunities for Shorebirds & People – Speaker: Mike Molnar, Director, Manomet Coastal Zone Initiative. Presentation included information on coastal dynamics, dredging and beneficial use, and restoration opportunities.
https://youtu.be/-tK-MbKl7Ks March 27, 2024
Restoration and Beneficial Use of Dredge Material – Focus on the Efficient Permitting Roadmap – Speakers: Wendy Kordesch, PhD- Oceanographer for the Greater Farallones Association and NOAA affiliate to Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries. Max Delaney Policy Analyst with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
https://youtu.be/jFs-y6XdH08?si=sUJRnMpyl5AJltD_ May 22, 2024
Restoration and Beneficial Use of Dredge Material – Focus on Blackwater NWR and Prime Hook NWR (Double Feature) – Speakers: Matt Whitbeck is the supervisory wildlife biologist for the Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex; Bart Wilson USFWS Regional Geomorphologist – Northeast Region
https://youtu.be/JBrjWuaXyEs November 7, 2024
Restoration and Beneficial use of Dredge Material – Focus on Nearshore Placement – Speakers: Julie Beagle, Environmental planning section chief for the San Francisco district; Dr. Brian McFall and Douglas Krafft, both coastal engineers with the Army Corps engineer Research and Development Center
https://youtu.be/1HrcUVUBo2M November 14, 2024
Restoration and Beneficial Use of Dredge Materials – Focus on Regulatory Tradeoffs for Restoration – Speakers: George Ramseur, Senior Coastal Scientist, Moffatt and Nichol; Jenny Davis – Research Ecologist, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science; Jessie Murray – Marine Habitat Resource Specialist – NOAA Fisheries Service; Candice Piercy USACE Engineer Research and Development Center; and Bart Wilson, Regional Geomorphologist – US Fish and Wildlife Service
https://youtu.be/yiwgfRFC6SE November 20, 2024

Coastal Restoration Online Decision Support Tools

Through a partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers, Coastal States Organization, and numerous federal, state, and nonprofit partners, online decision support websites for identification of coastal habitat restoration sites were created for North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. These online decision support tools bring together many useful data layers and include information on Geographic Coastal Areas of Concern (GCACs) where a site may benefit from restoration efforts. The tools also include prioritized restoration project sites in each state.

RSM BUDM – GA – Experience

RSM BUDM – SC – Experience

RSM BUDM – GA – Experience

State Beneficial Use of Dredge Materials (BUDM) Restoration Placemats:

A recently concluded grant effort in the Southeast yielded four priority BUDM Restoration Projects per state. Manomet staff continue to engage with federal, state, and nonprofit partners to move these restoration opportunities to implementation. The below documents outline the process and factors involved in the ranking as well as information about each of the sites. Thank you to our partners at the US Army Corps of Engineers for developing these placemat documents.

North Carolina State BUDM Restoration Document

South Carolina State BUDM Restoration Document

Georgia State BUDM Restoration Document