The Wrack: noaa

In the summer of 2009, Marissa Hammond came to us as a wide-eyed UNE freshman with little experience in research science. She has since blossomed into a NOAA scholarship award winner who has been accepted into a highly respected graduate program in fisheries management and policy. Here is what she had to say about how the Wells Reserve played a part in that journey…

I am currently a senior at the University of New England, where I’m pursuing a degree in Marine Biology and Environmental Studies. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to intern at the Wells Reserve studying larval and juvenile fish in the Webhannet Estuary.

The White House has released a draft implementation plan for National Ocean Policy, demonstrating ongoing progress on a massive task. The draft implementation plan is guided by four themes:

1. Adopt ecosystem-based management
2. Obtain, use, and share the best science and data
3. Promote efficiency and collaboration
4. Strengthen regional efforts

The plan lays out a series of more than 50 actions — with accompanying outcomes and milestones — guided by these National Priority Objectives:

Scientists at the Wells Reserve have always been deeply interested in salt marsh restoration. For decades, they have focused on how salt marshes degrade and how they can be restored. It's no surprise, then, that this week's Federal Register specifically mentions the Wells Reserve in NOAA's request for comments on a revised draft of the Estuary Habitat Restoration Strategy.

It's been a while since we brought up the freshwater estuary at the mouth of Wisconsin's St. Louis River. Well, it's now become an official member of the reserve system, as announced this week by the University of Wisconsin-Superior:

A new website from NOAA lets you determine demographic and economic characteristics of a wide variety of important coastal management jurisdictions using a quick report tool. The Spatial Trends in Coastal Socioeconomics website can display these datasets:

The alphabet soup that leads from the Wells Reserve to NERRS to OCRM to NOS to NOAA has a new cook stirring the pot and she was interviewed this month for Yale Environment 360.

The Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) authorization bill has passed Congress and is headed to the the President's desk.

The Coastal Zone Management Act, under which the Wells Reserve receives its federal funding, provides for the periodic review of all estuarine research reserves. This week the Wells Reserve hosted four NOAA representatives who assessed operation and management of the Reserve for the period June 2004 to April 2008.

The Section 312 evaluation team will prepare a set of findings that identify successes and areas needing improvement. Early indications suggest the Reserve will receive a positive review. We will notify members when findings become available.

On Friday, November 4, the House and Senate conferees agreed to legislation setting the FY 06 funding levels for science-related agencies and the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce. The $57.85 billion spending bill that was approved included $3.9 billion for NOAA, splitting the difference between the Senate mark of $4.5 billion and the House mark of $3.38 billion. The final figure for NOAA is $21 million more than NOAA’s FY 05 budget and $364.8 million above the President’s budget request.

—Thanks to Angela at the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association

The spending level for the NERR System is $16.4 million.