Great Swamp NWR 24JUn05

"Communication, consultation, and cooperation, all in the service of conservation": this is the Secretary of Interior's philosophy of partnership that maintains and supports effective natural resource restoration. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is committed to building partnerships that encourage conservation and preserve our natural and cultural resources, to bringing innovative approaches to solving land and water management issues, and to working with partners to resolve complex ecological issues toward a common goal.

Partnerships arise for many reasons and set out to achieve a variety of goals. The now remediated Operable Unit 3 (OU3) of the Asbestos Dump Superfund Site is located in the northwestern portion of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (GSNWR) Wilderness Area. The natural resource injuries at OU3 can generally be described as the impairment, disruption, and loss of herbaceous and forested wetlands and the ecological services they provided. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, commonly known as Superfund, authorizes natural resource trustees to recover compensation to restore injured resources back to baseline condition, for losses suffered by the public during the period the resources were injured (lost interim use), and to spend that compensation on additional restoration actions. Early in 2002, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service began implementing its Final Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment (RP/EA) for OU3 which describes six discrete and interdependent actions designed to restore, enhance, or replace natural resources injured by contamination at OU3. The GSNWR Watershed Natural Resource Restoration Assistance Project (NRRA Project) is the instrumentality by which the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will implement the remaining prescribed action of the RP/EA: Protection and Enhancement of Off-Refuge Wetlands. The NRRA Project provides U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service support through partnerships and cost-sharing with the local non-profit organizations or local governments (i.e., counties, townships, boroughs, environmental or planning commissions, or other units of local government) within the Great Swamp watershed on projects that encourage acquisition, restoration, rehabilitation, or enhancement of wetlands within the watershed, outside the property boundary and management jurisdiction of the GSNWR.

To be included in the NRRA Project, candidate projects must 1) benefit the GSNWR by restoring, replacing, enhancing, or protecting natural resources (including land or easement acquisition) and the services lost, impaired, disrupted or degraded at OU3; 2) be located within the Great Swamp watershed; 3) be cost-effective; and 4) ensure that project site(s) will be protected in perpetuity by an enforceable arrangement such as a conservation easement, deed restriction, or other legal agreement. Projects that seek funding for political advocacy, lobbying, litigation, outreach, research, citizen monitoring or hazardous waste site remediation were not eligible.

Total funding available for the NRRA Project is $350,000. Eight projects were proposed for inclusion in the NRRA Project; all were accepted. The total amount of funding to be allocated through cooperative agreements is $348,500. The NRRA Project partners leveraged more than $190,000 in cash and in-kind services, bringing the total value of the NRRA Project to almost $540,000. All projects may commence pending the administration of cooperative agreements between the NRRA Project partners and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. For additional information on the NRRA Project or the OU3 RP/EA, contact Clay Stern of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's New Jersey Field Office at 609/ 646 9310, extension 27.