CSO Newsletter
The Coastal States Organization represents the nation’s Coastal States, Territories & Commonwealths on ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resource issues.
Spotlight on Coastal Management
Helping Alabama communities join the Community Rating System
The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is undertaking a 5-year project under a CZMA § 309 strategy to increase Community Rating System (CRS) participation and ratings of communities in the state’s two coastal counties. [1] Under the Community Resiliency Initiative - Planning for Resilient Communities project, ADCNR is undertaking to:
  • Develop and conduct a needs assessment survey of communities’ coastal resilience conditions and capacity to enroll and advance in the CRS,
  • Conduct the FEMA Quick Check Tool with communities,
  • Identify and fill data gaps in available flooding, sea level rise, and natural barriers information,
  • Develop and conduct training workshops responsive to the needs identified by the needs assessment survey and the FEMA Quick Check Tool,
  • Conduct an outreach program based around the Mississippi/Alabama Sea Grant “Step by Step: A Primer for Getting Started in the CRS Program,”
  • Publish technical bulletins to supplement the primer with in-depth information.
  • Provide technical assistance to guide at least two communities through enrolling in the CRS.

[1] The CRS is a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that incentivizes communities to increase flood resilience by offering flood insurance rate discounts in the National Flood Insurance Program.
Slide taken from an Alabama presentation on CRS at CSO's Fall Meeting in October 2017.
In the States and Regions
East Coast and Caribbean
Fast-Tracked Permits Nourish Beaches and Habitat
A biological opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shrinks the permitting process for beach renourishment from a maximum of 135 days to as little as 35 days. The North Carolina Division of Coastal Management cooperated on the opinion, and NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management provided a $57,000 study grant. This new approach makes the planning and permitting of many beach projects more straightforward. The document spells out how renourishment processes must safeguard endangered and threatened sea turtles and shorebirds. Read more.
West Coast and Pacific
San Diego County Benefits from Adaptation Strategy
A NOAA Regional Coastal Resilience Grant helped launch the Resilient Coastlines Project of Greater San Diego. This partnership effort encompassing nine cities is putting into action fourteen adaptation planning initiatives. It is led by the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative and designed with the help of the Climate Science Alliance-South Coast and Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve. Site-specific strategies are showing important results by leveraging living shorelines, sea level rise and erosion studies, economic assessments, and outreach. Read more.
Gulf of Mexico
Building barriers: Inside the race to save Louisiana's first line of storm defense
Ten miles from Louisiana's receding shore, on an island that was on the verge of sinking away, new land is growing at a rate of 200 feet per day.

A slurry of sand blasts from a 30-inch-wide pipe with the force of a firehose. In foaming sheets, it spreads across the beach of Whiskey Island, making it thicker and wider by the minute. Backhoes and bulldozers finish the job, sculpting the sand into something resembling the island's younger self, before storms, oil spills and erosion took a heavy toll. Read more.
Great Lakes
Using green infrastructure to reduce flooding
How can cities reduce flooding caused by increasingly intense rain storms?

More often, it's flooding in areas not known for a lot of flooding in the past. That happened in Detroit in 2014. It caught everyone by surprise as interstates and neighborhoods were suddenly under water. Read more.
Announcements
National Coastal Resilience Fund 2018 Request for Proposals
  • Full Proposal Due Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 11:59 PM Eastern Time

OVERVIEW
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is pleased to announce the National Coastal Resilience Fund. Projects funded under this national program will provide benefits to communities, as well as for fish and wildlife. In partnership with NOAA, NFWF will make investments to advance identified priorities for restoring and strengthening natural systems so they can protect coastal communities from the impacts of storms and floods and enable them to recover more quickly, while also enhancing habitats for important fish and wildlife populations. Read more.

Apply for a CITGO Gulf Region Grant
Restore America’s Estuaries is excited to partner with CITGO to provide grants to organizations and groups interested in hosting National Estuaries Week events in the Gulf of Mexico region. These grants are intended to provide groups with funding to host new events, or to increase the impact of existing events, in celebration of National Estuaries Week.
In 2017, this program awarded grants to eight organizations who together engaged more than 3,400 volunteers, collected 146,000 pounds of trash, cleaned 450 miles of shorelines, restored 65 acres of coastal land, and planted more than 2,100 trees.

Draft for Public Comment - Science and Technology for America's Oceans: A Decadal Vision

Tips and Stories for Coastal Managers, Delivered to Your Inbox
 
Have the latest technical topics, professional tips, and stories from your peers emailed to you each month. Subscribe to NOAA Office for Coastal Management’s recently redesigned Digital Coast Connections newsletter . Stay in the know about new data, tools, and resources from NOAA’s Digital Coast, as well as announcements from the research reserves, the Coastal Zone Management Program, and the Coral Reef Conservation Program. Email the office for more information. 

Funds projects by 501(c)(3) public charities that advance the understanding and/or implementation of living shorelines. HMSF will select an estimated 2-3 grantees per year. Grant amounts may range from $25,000-$75,000. Letters of Intent due October 1, 2018. 

The State of Sea Grant 2018 Biennial Report to Congress

Add Your Name In Support of National Ocean Sciences Board
Ocean education needs greater attention in the U.S. The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) is a long-standing program providing high school students with high quality educational experiences and building a community—already tens of thousands strong—of STEM trained, ocean literate, and thoughtful future leaders in our nation’s workforce. The letter linked below urges the federal government to renew its support for ocean education and, in particular, the NOSB. Without sustained federal funding, the NOSB will likely soon come to an end. Please help us demonstrate the ocean science and education community’s support for this program and the need for federal action by signing on to the letter. Sign on here!
Events & Webinars
August 6 - 9, 2018

August 2, 2018
  • Mid Atlantic Council on the Ocean - Richmond, VA

September 10 - 13, 2018
  • Great Lakes Regional CZ Meeting

September 17 -19, 2018

October 13 - 18, 2018
  • Pacific Program Managers Meeting - Guam

October 15 - 19, 2018
  • Coastal States Organization Annual Meeting, Providence, Rhode Island

October 17 - 18, 2018

October 22 - 25, 2018

October 30 - Nov 2 , 2018

December 8 - 13, 2018

February 11-14, 2019

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will host a series of public engagement sessions this summer to update the public on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and to seek their input on future priorities.
 
EPA and its federal partners are in the process of developing Action Plan III, which will outline priorities and goals for the GLRI for 2020-2024. Action Plan III will identify five focus areas for environmental progress: toxic substances and areas of concern, invasive species, nonpoint source pollution impacts on nearshore health, habitat and species, and future restoration actions. The proposed plan is expected to be available for formal public comment this fall.

The schedule of the remaining public engagement sessions is:
 
Tuesday, August 7, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
EPA Region 5
Lake Michigan Room – 12 th floor
77 West Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, Ill.


The NOAA Digital Coast: Turning Coastal Data and Tools into Actionable Information by Josh Murphy, Doug Marcy, and Nate Herold of NOAA.
  • Tuesday, July 31, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC

NOAA’s Digital Coast is a website and partnership that provides public access to coastal data, tools, training, and resources in order to meet the unique needs of coastal communities. Coastal resource managers can access collections of high quality, authoritative geospatial data (e.g., topography, coastal land cover change, socioeconomic information), tools, and trainings to address coastal and ocean management challenges. More than just a website, the Digital Coast provides the framework and information needed to save organizations time and money and allows groups that might not otherwise work together to join forces. Content on the Digital Coast comes from many sources, all of which are vetted by NOAA. This webinar will provide an overview of the Digital Coast and demonstrate two geospatial tools that turn data into actionable information: 1) Sea Level Rise Viewer ( https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slr), which visualizes coastal flooding scenarios and social vulnerability due to sea level rise; and 2) Land Cover Atlas ( https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/lca ), an online data viewer that provides user-friendly access to coastal land cover and land cover change information developed through NOAA’s Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP). Visit NOAA’s Digital Coast at https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast. Webinar hosted by the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by OCTO and NatureServe). Register for the webinar at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WzBSJVBbRlSezGWIljjqDQ .
9th National Summit on Coastal and Estuarine Restoration and Management

Register now and be a part of the largest gathering of the coastal restoration and management community! All attendees, including program participants, sponsors, and exhibitors, must register online . Registration fees are as follows: Early Bird (available through October 12) - $495, Full Rate - $595, On-site - $625, Student - $275, One-day - $290.


Summit Fast Facts
When: December 8-13, 2018 - put it on your calendar and get your travel paperwork submitted!

Where: Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. See the Travel and Hotel Information for additional information on rates, reservations, travel, and more.

What will happen: oral presentations, posters, networking, field sessions, workshops, and the list goes on... 

Cost: Early bird $495 until October 12, 2018

Ways to be involved: presenter, exhibitor, sponsor, attendee, volunteer, advertiser...and more!

For more information: 2018 Summit website

Job Openings
The views expressed in articles referenced here are those of the authors and do not represent or reflect the views of CSO.  

If you have a news item or job posting to include in future CSO Newsletters, please send an email to: gwilliams@coastalstates.org with a subject line: "Newsletter Content". Please include the information to be considered in the body of the email. 
 
Please note: CSO reserves final decision regarding published newsletter content and may not use all information submitted.
Coastal States Organization | 444 North Capitol St. NW, Suite 638, Washington, DC 20001 | 202-508-3860 | cso@coastalstates.org | www.coastalstates.org