Coastal Services Center

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Quick Links Government Roles Creative Partnerships Toward the Future References

Partnerships and Funding

Map showing the proposed Bahia Grande restoration project. Courtesy: Thor Lassen. Today, partnership-building is the foundation for watershed activities, and watershed practitioners tout its two clear benefits: broad public acceptance and quicker, more efficient implementation. Coastal habitat restoration projects are not unlike large multi-stakeholder watershed initiatives. Regardless of size, coastal habitat projects are often complex, they require a broad range of skills and resources, and they need public acceptance and support. Therefore, it is no surprise that effective partnerships are essential for the success of coastal habitat restoration projects. This article provides an overview and examples of the types of partnerships currently being implemented in restoration projects.

Government Roles

Traditionally, one or more of the partners involved in coastal restoration projects is a governmental agency. Most often, governmental agencies are called on to provide funding for coastal restoration efforts; federal funding programs can provide primary funds for restoration activities. Enabling legislation, such as the Clean Water Act; Coastal Zone Management Act; the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA); and the Estuary Restoration Act of 2000, provides the mechanism for committing funds for coastal restoration programs. Through appropriating legislation, millions of federal dollars are obligated to restoration efforts through a wide range of programs. A majority of these programs require participation from a variety of groups at the regional, state, and local levels — both public and private. Many funding programs provide matching grants on a competitive basis. Other programs provide low-cost financing for a wide range of water quality infrastructure projects. Many also provide technical assistance or help to create and expand sources for public funding. Table 1 lists examples of federal funding programs. Further guidance on federal funding programs is provided at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Restore America's Estuaries Web site for implementing A National Strategy to Restore Coastal and Estuarine Habitat (http://era.noaa.gov/htmls/funding/sup_funding.html). Another source of information is "Funding for Habitat Restoration Projects: A Citizen's Guide." The document and searchable database are available at http://www.estuaries.org.

Governmental agencies at all levels can play many different roles in coastal restoration projects. Federal, local, state, or tribal agencies can act as facilitators in establishing the partnerships, or can provide information, needed staff, and technical guidance. Governmental agencies can also play a more active role by designing management strategies and implementing specific actions of the restoration project actions or managing the coastal restoration effort.

NOAA Fisheries' Community-based Restoration Program (CRP), for example, brings together citizen groups, public and nonprofit organizations, industry, corporations, businesses, youth conservation corps, students, landowners, and local, state and federal government agencies to restore fishery habitat around the coastal U.S. The CRP funds projects directly, and through partnerships with national and regional organizations. The program maintains an extensive listing of funding opportunities on its Web site. The CRP and other funding programs for coastal habitat restoration are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Examples of funding programs for coastal habitat restoration

Primary Sponsor(s)	Program	Description
Federal Programs
NOAA Fisheries	Community-based Restoration Program (CRP)	Brings together citizen groups, public and nonprofit organizations, industry, corporations, businesses, youth conservation corps, students, landowners, and local, state and federal government agencies to restore fishery habitat around the coastal U.S. The CRP funds projects directly, and through partnerships with national and regional organizations.
Coastal America	Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership (CWRP)	A voluntary public-private partnership to restore wetlands and other aquatic habitats in the U.S. Partners include private industry, the federal office of the Coastal America Partnership (representing 12 federal departments and agencies), state agencies, non-profit organizations, and academia. Industry contributions generally will be matched by federal/state funds on an average 4:1 ratio.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF)	Each state and Puerto Rico maintain revolving loan funds to provide low-cost financing for a variety of water quality and estuary management projects. Unlike most grant programs which require cost-sharing, an SRF loan can cover 100 percent of project costs with no cash up front.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and NOAA Fisheries	Five Star Restoration Program	Provides modest funding on a competitive basis to support community based wetlands restoration. Projects ideally engage five or more diverse partners to contribute funding, land, technical assistance, workforce support, or other in-kind services.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	Catalog of Federal and Other Funding Sources for Watershed Protection	A listing of federal and private, nonprofit sources for watershed protection.
Natural Resources Conservation Service	Farm Bill 2002	Wetlands Reserve Program: Provides technical and financial assistance to landowners and tribes to enhance wetlands in exchange for retiring marginal agricultural land; other programs are also available.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service	National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program	Provides matching grants for acquisition, restoration, management, or enhancement of coastal wetlands through a nationwide competitive process.
Other Programs
The Trust for Public Land	Conservation Finance Program	Assists land trusts, communities, and states in creating and expanding sources of public funding for land conservation.

One of the federal government's premier restoration partnership programs was established under Coastal America, which is a unique partnership of federal agencies, state and local governments, and private organizations that combines the partners' expertise to solve local coastal problems, resulting in cost-effective, innovative solutions. In 1999, Coastal America established the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership (CWRP) to facilitate voluntary public-private partnership to restore wetlands. The CWRP is organized on a regional and state-by-state basis under the Coastal America framework and is implemented and administered at the state level under a public/private advisory board. Through this program, corporations collaborate with federal and state agencies to restore wetlands and other aquatic habitat. Many successful restoration projects have been initiated under the program. More information and descriptions of spotlight projects conducted as a result of the CWRP can be found at http://www.coastalamerica.gov/text/cwrp.html.
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Creative Partnerships

As more and more coastal restoration projects are undertaken, obtaining the resources of traditional partners will become more competitive. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to seek additional and perhaps more nontraditional restoration partners.

Figure 1. As part of the Marsh and Golf Program, Save the Bay distributed the "Coastal Property and Landscape Management Guidebook: How to Save Time, Money, and the Coastal Environment" to golf courses, such as The Rhode Island Country Club. Courtesy: Rhode Island Country Club.

Seeking nontraditional partners requires a new perspective on the key elements of a successful partnership. A partnership is a teaming of any individuals or groups that can agree to work toward common or compatible goals. The goals of each partner do not necessarily need to be identical, but they must be compatible or mutually beneficial. Creative partnering requires broadening the perspective of a successful partnership from one that is based on having a common objective to one that provides mutual benefit.

As an example, think of yourself as a coastal restoration manager in an area where 50 percent of the coastal marshes have been lost since European settlement, and where nearly 30 percent of the remaining salt marshes have inadequate or no adjacent undeveloped buffer zone, leaving them unprotected from polluted runoff from lawns, golf courses, and parking lots. You are also aware that golf courses are one of the most significant landowners within your watershed. One of your priorities is to reduce runoff to restore the conditions of existing coastal marshes. Runoff is a complex problem to identify and mitigate, and controlling it is most successful when it is reduced at the source.

Save the Bay, an organization formed to ensure that the environmental quality of Narragansett Bay and its watershed is restored and protected from the harmful effects of human activity, is faced with this very same challenge. With more than 50 golf courses statewide and 28 abutting the Narragansett Bay shoreline, golf courses represent one of the largest property owners in the coastal zone. Save The Bay discovered that many golfers appreciate the natural surroundings that define the golfing experience. An obviously significant relationship therefore exists between the interests of the golfing community and those wishing to preserve and restore coastal habitats. As a result, Save the Bay has begun to build partnerships with coastal golf course superintendents of Rhode Island and Massachusetts through the Marsh and Golf Program. Through this partnership, they are providing golf course superintendents with technical support and cost-effective best management practices to improve not only estuarine ecological functions, but also the aesthetics and playability of golf courses (Figure 1).

Many different groups or individuals can come together to achieve a restoration goal, if there is mutual benefit. Save the Bay formed a creative partnership with an industry organization to make progress toward its objective with minimal exchange of funding, and both partners benefited from the project. In addition to typical partnerships among different levels of government (local, state, federal or tribal), other potential nontraditional partners might be landowners, business organizations, agricultural organizations, academic institutions, and private industries. Recently, many restoration groups are finding that a strong partnership can be formed within the community where a project is conducted, particularly with student, senior citizen, or other local groups. (See The Community Involvement Page)
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Creative Partnerships at Work

Increasing the pool of potential partners brings many more resources to a restoration effort. Restoration projects can be complex and often involve a broad range of skills, talent, responsibilities, and resources, from biological and social sciences to engineering, management, and administration. Creative partnerships can facilitate the pooling of resources from many diverse organizations and sectors to fill the needs.

Figure 2. Map showing the proposed Bahia Grande restoration project. Courtesy: Thor Lassen.
Figure 3. Condition of Jimmy-come-lately estuary in 2002 (left) and a depiction of the future condition of the restored estuary, with most man-made features removed and the tidal channel returned to the historical location (right). Courtesy: Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe.

One large coastal restoration project that exemplifies the multi-stakeholder collaboration is the Bahia Grande in Texas (Gulf of Mexico Foundation Web site). The 11,000 acre basin is located west of the Brownsville Ship Channel and was once connected to the Laguna Madre and waters from the Gulf of Mexico. Following the construction of the Brownsville Ship Channel in the 1930s and the construction of Highway 48, the Basin was isolated from its water source, leaving over 6000 acres of a shallow dried-out bay (Figure 2).

The goal of the Bahia Grande project is to restore the basin to a 4000-5000 acre estuary with more than 3000 additional acres of surrounding marsh land. This complex restoration project has involved 3 years of planning and collaboration to design the construction of five new channels ranging in length from 2000-8250 feet and 50-60 feet wide, which will connect the Bahia Basin to surrounding basins and to the Brownsville ship channel.

The partnership is led by the Ocean Trust and includes the Ducks Unlimited, Gulf of Mexico Program, NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Community Based Restoration Program, Gulf Ecological management Sites Program, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Texas Coastal Program. The partners share the vision of returning water and native vegetation and wildlife to the 11,000-acre estuary. Success will only be achieved through the combined efforts of the interested parties — shrimping industry, governmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the community. All parties have donated funds or labor and materials to the effort, which will include the construction of channels and planting of native grasses and the black mangrove (Avicennia nitida).

Efforts are now underway to flood the area and to restore the estuary to a healthy water body. It is expected that water will begin flowing by the end of 2003. More information can be found at the Bahia Grande: Wetland Restoration Project or the NOAA Restoration Center Community-based Restoration Program.

Another example, on a smaller scale, is the Jimmy-come-lately estuary restoration project in Washington. The area was experiencing frequent flooding and reduced salmon runs, so the project was spearheaded by the native people of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe to alleviate both problems. The project also involved numerous local, state, and federal agencies, local land owners, and nongovernmental organizations. The representatives from these organizations have worked together for years to develop an estuary restoration vision, purchase land, and finally implement the plan. Figure 3 shows the condition of the estuary in 2002 and the proposed estuary after restoration. The Jamestown tribe attributes the successful implementation of the project to broad collaboration between partners.
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Toward the Future

Creative and innovative partnerships are becoming critical to the future success of habitat restoration projects, but they require true commitment for successful results. Developing a solid collaboration with partners having mutually beneficial or compatible goals can be much more challenging than cultivating a partnership that is based on a single goal. Coastal restoration managers therefore will need to focus more on creating trust and respect among partners to create synergy and motivation toward the common goal. If successful, the benefits will be tremendous. The growing trend to create nontraditional partnerships will provide opportunities to generate new ideas, information, and innovative approaches; help neutralize differences; promote more efficient use of resources; and lead to greater support for a common goal.
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References

Corcoran, P. "Creating successful partnerships." 2002. In: National coastal ecosystem restoration manual. Ridlington, S., ed. Oregon Sea Grant, Oregon State University. Corvallis, OR. Pages 3 to 29.

Additional information and citations are available in:

Borde, A.B., and others. 2003. National Review of Successful and Innovative Restoration Projects. Prepared for NOAA Coastal Services Center, Charleston, SC. by Battelle Marine Sciences Laboratory. Sequim, WA.
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