Coastal Services Center

While ecosystem-based management has been called out as a coastal resource management solution for addressing the combination of natural and human activities along our nation’s shoreline, implementing it isn’t always easy. In 2007, a multidisciplinary partnership formed in Humboldt Bay, California, with the intention of developing a “practical” way to implement ecosystem-based management in the region.

After an extensive planning process, the Humboldt Bay Initiative is moving forward with strategies that include creating a nonprofit organization to facilitate funding and partnership opportunities, and the implementation of climate change adaptation tools that communities around the country may be able to model. The initiative is also partnering with other ecosystem-based management projects on the West Coast to share ideas and information.

“When we started this, there was a wealth of scientific and policy papers encouraging ecosystem-based management, but nothing really practical for on-the-ground implementation,” says Susan Schlosser, a California Sea Grant advisor. “Since then, we’ve built an ecosystem-based management framework, are moving ahead on two of six strategies on high-priority issues, and have developed recommendations for establishing and maintaining a Humboldt Bay Ecosystem database.”

“Each year down the road is producing more fruits of the investment of working together in an ongoing manner,” says Rebecca Price-Hall, the watershed coordinator for Trinidad to Humboldt Bay and the part-time coordinator for the project. “We’ve gone from having a 30-member team to now having an email list of over 150 people. While all those people aren’t equally involved, it does illustrate the level of increased communication and coordination.”

All in the Timing

At the same time that ecosystem-based management was spotlighted by both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission as a solution to the combination of human activities on land, along the coasts, and in the ocean, two community-based plans for Humboldt Bay and its watershed were being completed.

“A number of us were involved in both community planning processes, and the coincidental timing of these big policy initiatives supporting ecosystem-based management made us think that maybe this was a way we could integrate and implement the local plan priorities,” Schlosser says.

Ecosystem-based management is defined in the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy’s 2004 final report as managing ocean and coastal resources in a way that reflects “the relationship among all ecosystem components, including humans and nonhuman species and the environments in which they live.”

The report notes, “Applying this principle will require defining relevant geographic management areas based on ecosystem, rather than political boundaries.”

Humboldt Bay was an ideal location for the implementation of ecosystem-based management, Schlosser says, because it has a definable ecosystem, and citizens living in the area are experienced with interactive programs requiring stakeholder participation in decision-making, have many existing networks, have a strong sense of place, and treasure their quality of life.

Picking the Team

With a California Coastal Conservancy grant in hand, the first step toward implementing ecosystem-based management in Humboldt Bay was forming an advisory team in 2006 that included 22 scientists and coastal resource managers. The team also included representatives of local tribes, nonprofits, and businesses.

“We asked each person to commit to participating in the process for a year,” says Price-Hall. “We wanted people to come regularly so we weren’t starting each meeting explaining the same thing.”

Sea Grant’s Schlosser says she took on the coordinator role “because it seemed very appropriate with the many outreach needs. It was a way to put my arms around everything that I’d worked on for the past 15 years and would help bring everybody together.”

She adds, “I was also willing to do it.”

Strategizing

The advisory team took the two community plans for Humboldt Bay and its watershed and identified common issues that were a priority for both. “These were big issues, like estuarine restoration and sediment dynamics. After about a year, we realized we needed bigger teams and a more strategic approach,” Schlosser says.

A project team of 44 people completed a lengthy formal strategic planning process using funds from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and California Sea Grant. When the plan was completed in 2009, the result was six priority management strategies that were developed by identifying ecosystem-based “targets” and threats to those targets.

“It felt worthwhile to go through the more extensive strategic planning process,” Price-Hall says. “In the end, we had a much more comprehensive plan.”

Since then, significant progress has been made in two of the strategic areas—creating a nonprofit organization to facilitate funding and partnership opportunities, and coordinating the response to coastal climate change.

First Priority

The first strategy the group took on was a proactive, coordinated response to impacts resulting from climate change, such as habitat and species changes, hydrological changes, and shifts in land use, Schlosser says.

All the data and local tools available related to area impacts were collected and synthesized, and the project team was able to start targeting research projects to fill in gaps. It also began disseminating the information in a series of community workshops.

Concurrently, the project team began working with the Ecosystem-Based Management Tools Network and the NOAA Coastal Services Center to target tools that could be used as part of a demonstration project.

“We got a small grant from the Campbell Foundation to help them start devising plans for specific actions to prepare for adapting to rising sea levels and other climate impacts coming down the line,” says John Rozum, a NatureServe contractor working as the ecosystem-based management tools training coordinator hosted by the Coastal Services Center. “We hope to take the lessons learned here and apply them to other areas.”

Its Own Entity

The group has also recently formed the Coastal Ecosystems Institute of Northern California, a nonprofit organization to attract and manage funding for large collaborative projects.

“One of the things we identified in our first year of work,” Schlosser says, “was that we needed some kind of entity that could serve this large, multidisciplinary group of agencies, businesses, academics, and tribes because none of the existing entities were set up to administer anything like that.”

Reaching Out

In 2007, members of the Humboldt Bay Initiative advisory team also began meeting and sharing information with what became the West Coast Ecosystem-Based Management Network, a partnership of six community-based initiatives focused on the successful implementation of ecosystem-based management along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California.

“We learn from each other in the network, which is immensely helpful,” Schlosser says.

Other strategies the initiative is moving forward on include a coordinated response to invasive species, addressing water quality issues, and promoting sustainable development.

Gaining Momentum

While it has been time-consuming and at times challenging, Schlosser says there is no denying the management momentum gained by taking on an ecosystem-based management approach.

“By working cooperatively, we’ve identified the issues that really matter to everybody. In the end, we’re getting down to the foundational question, ‘What do we need to know to do these things?’ That’s what’s united us in continuing the conversations.”

She adds, “I’m very happy that it’s turned out to have value, and it’s very satisfying that people want to advance this concept of ecosystem-based management and get these projects done.”

For more information on the Humboldt Bay Initiative, go to http://ca-sgep.ucsd.edu/focus-areas/healthy-coastal-marine-ecosystems/humboldt-bay-ebm. You may also contact Susan Schlosser at (707) 443-8369 or sschlosser@ucsd.edu, or Rebecca Price-Hall at (707) 499-6454 or rpricehall@trinidad.ca.gov. To learn more about the climate change tools being used in Humboldt Bay, contact John Rozum at (510) 251-8319 or john.rozum@noaa.gov. For more information on the West Coast Ecosystem-Based Management Network go to www.westcoastebm.org.