Action Habitat-2.1: Habitat Plans
Update existing and develop new regional habitat restoration plans and strategies to facilitate cross-boundary projects and address emerging challenges for habitat resilience.
Action Description and Statement of Need
This Action will update existing and publish new regional plans for freshwater and estuarine habitat restoration. ‘Plans’ refers broadly to strategies, designs, assessments, and protocols that apply from an ecosystem to a habitat location. Restoration plans have been developed for salt marshes, shellfish, coastal ponds, reefs, rivers, and forests. Seagrass and oyster restoration planning, along with broader aquaculture oversight, are underway locally and in the greater New England region.
Many existing plans were developed more than a decade ago and need to be updated to reflect a regional approach to emerging challenges for habitat resilience. Some are confined by geopolitical boundaries and may lack specific implementation details necessary to ensure responsive projects. Opportunities exist to improve cross-state and other regional coordination, collaboration, and information sharing about habitat restoration, land use planning, and biodiversity conservation (Stevens et al. 2023).
Involvement of watershed-based organizations, land trusts, commercial aquaculture organizations, and other experts working at the local scale is also important for establishing watershed and estuarine habitat restoration priorities. Local and regional collaboration ensures that priorities can be guided by partners most familiar with local issues and supported by partners who are experienced with working at larger scales.
NBEP will convene partners to share restoration expertise and emerging best practices, coordinate habitat planning efforts, and prioritize restoration projects across institutional and state boundaries, with a goal of developing the NBEP Habitat Restoration Plan by 2028. NBEP will also assist to leverage resources with projects like the Blackstone Needs Assessment (2019–2021), the Blackstone Fish Passage Project (2021–current), and the Salt Marsh Restoration, Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) (2022–current). NBEP will help fund partner and community outreach, efforts to update planning documents, and research to fill knowledge gaps.
Potential Projects
Develop the NBEP Habitat Restoration Plan.
Update Rhode Island Anadromous Fish Restoration Plan.
Update existing restoration strategies to include updated data, information, and completed projects.
Develop a Narragansett Bay region salt marsh restoration strategy or update the Rhode Island Coastal Wetland Restoration Strategy to include the upper part of Narragansett Bay in Massachusetts and portions of Little Narragansett Bay in Connecticut, where useful. Strategy should highlight areas where marsh migration is possible and should be supported.
Support the development and implementation of the Rhode Island Shellfish Restoration and Enhancement Plan.
Develop a Narragansett Bay and/or broader regional submerged aquatic vegetation restoration plan that reviews restoration strategies that have been tried in Narragansett Bay to date, including current seed-based restoration strategies, and assesses whether recent water quality improvements could improve restoration success. This restoration plan should also include new data collected on flowering phenology and seed collection and seed transfer guidance.
Expand and update Sea Level Affecting Marsh Migration (SLAMM) models to include the Palmer and Runnins Rivers and other areas of MA, CT, and RI that were not covered in state models.
Pursue or expand state level management plans for lakes and ponds, inclusive of invasive species and educational outreach to boaters.
Develop plans and actions to protect cold-water streams and rivers, or specific endangered and/or threatened freshwater species, such as native brook trout.
Outputs
NBEP Habitat Restoration Plan
RI Shellfish Restoration and Enhancement Plan
A multi-state salt marsh restoration strategy
At least one regional submerged aquatic vegetation restoration strategy
Updated freshwater restoration and conservation plans and protocols
Coordinated meetings among habitat restoration practitioners
Expanded SLAMM to cover entire region seamlessly
Outcomes
Increased coordination on habitat restoration priorities, techniques, and projects across boundaries
Shared habitat restoration goals, objectives, and targets
Better designed and more impactful estuarine restoration projects
Healthier and more sustainable estuarine habitat
Increased coordination on freshwater restoration priorities, techniques, and projects across institutional and state boundaries
Shared plans for achieving freshwater restoration goals, objectives, and targets
Indicators
Sea Level Rise, Nutrient Loading, DO, Chlorophyll, Water Clarity, Benthic Habitat, Seagrasses, Salt Marsh, Aquatic Life Use, Estuarine Fish Use, Recreation Use, Open Space, Marine Beaches, Shell Fishing Areas, Land Use, Impervious Surface, Stream Invertebrates, Coldwater Fish
NBEP role
Convene, Synthesize and communicate science, Fund capacity and projects
Implementing Partners
EPA Region 1, NBNERR, MassDEP, MA DER, MA CZM, Mass Wildlife, Massachusetts DCR, RIDEM, CRMC, URI CRC, RISG, Mass ECAN, RINHS, Mass Audubon, Blackstone Watershed Collaborative
Location
Narragansett Bay region
Timeline for initiation
2026
Estimated costs/potential funding sources
$5M–10M
State Funds, NBEP 320/SNEP, EPA SNEP