SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council has won national recognition for its South Coast Habitat Restoration Project, which has been selected to receive a 2008 Coastal America Partnership Award.
The project, which began in 1997, has included the dredging of portions of Ninigret Pond to create a favorable environment for eelgrass, and the subsequent restoration of 40 acres of eelgrass habitat. It aims to correct problems that arose after the state widened and deepened the pond’s natural tidal inlet in 1952, creating the Charlestown Breachway; that construction caused new currents that eventually buried in sand the formerly abundant eelgrass beds on the pond’s floor.
The South Coast project is sponsored by the CRMC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with support from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management (DEM), the University of Rhode Island, the nonprofit Salt Ponds Coalition and the towns of South Kingstown, Charlestown and Westerly.
“The CRMC is honored to receive this prestigious award from Coastal America, and we are thrilled that the South Coast Habitat Restoration Project has received this distinction,” said agency chairman Michael M. Tikoian.
“The South Coast project is the largest habitat-restoration project that the council has taken on to date, and we consider it an immense success,” as well as “a shining example of the working partnerships in Rhode Island and the importance of habitat restoration.”
Tikoian praised “the hard work of the CRMC staff, especially Janet Freedman, as well as our other project partners,” and offered special thanks to U.S. Sen. Jack Reed for “his continued support of this and other restoration projects.”
“I am proud to have secured federal funding over the years for Ninigret Pond and other habitat-restoration projects along Rhode Island’s south coast,” said Reed, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “These projects benefit our coastal environment and help support our state’s shellfishing industry and many other commercial fisheries that depend on coastal habitats.”
The R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council is an independent regulatory agency established in 1971 by the R.I. General Assembly to oversee the preservation, protection, development and, where possible, the restoration of the the state’s coastal areas. For more information, visit www.crmc.ri.gov.
Coastal America, founded in 1991 to encourage efforts to find solutions to coastal problems, is a collaboration of federal, state and local governments and other groups. Additional information, including past Partnership Award winners, is available at www.CoastalAmerica.gov.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
