Coastal area
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Coastal Habitat Restoration Committee
 The Great Lakes
has over 9,000 miles of shoreline. Many issues threaten coastal habitat
resources including draining and filling of coastal wetlands, and contamination
and pollution of nearshore coastal areas.
The Great Lakes
Basin Ecosystem Team has established a Coastal Habitat Restoration
Committee and is addressing coastal habitat issues through:
- Habitat
enhancement, restoration, and protection; and increased
support for these activities,
- Improved
information sharing and development of stronger ties
between the Service, NGOs,
and state programs,
- Public
education and preparation of educational
materials,
and
- Development
of GIS/DSS data layers to address coastal resources throughout
the basin in cooperation
with the GIS/DSS Committee.
Valuable
Resources for Coastal Habitat Restoration include the Great
Lakes Coastal Program and the
Natural
Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA).
Great Lakes
Coastal Program
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) Great
Lakes Coastal Program is developing innovative partnerships with
local and statewide land trusts and other conservation partners to
identify
and protect some of the most valuable fish and wildlife habitat
and species in the Great Lakes basin. The program features non-regulatory,
partnership-based
efforts to achieve its mission.
Natural Resource
Damage Assessment (NRDA)
The FWS is involved in Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), a process
by which degrated habitats and resources degraded by contaminants and
pollution are cleaned up and restored. The goals of NRDA are to restore
the habitats and resources to the condition they would have been had the
polluters not released hazardous substances, and to compensate the public
for the loss of their use or enjoyment of natural resources. The polluters
are required to pay for these activities under federal laws and some state
laws. NRDA in the Great
Lakes/Big Rivers Region (R3)
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