The Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is recommending nearly $220 million in funding, and an additional $66 million in future year funding, to support 32 transformational habitat restoration and coastal resilience projects as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.
These funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will build on decades of habitat work in priority watersheds and support innovative projects that implement cutting-edge restoration techniques and groundbreaking efforts that restore habitat in urban ecosystems to benefit underserved communities.
NOAA prioritized projects that demonstrated a broad base of partner and community support, inclusive practices and meaningful strategies to engage Tribal Nations and community groups, including underserved communities.
The funding is aimed at creating and restoring healthy coastal ecosystems across the U.S.
The projects were selected through the Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience funding opportunity and build on the $285 million awarded from the BIL/IRA funds for 38 projects during the first round of this funding opportunity in 2023.
Ocean Conservancy, a group that advocates for clean oceans and creates evidence-based solutions for healthy oceans, applauds NOAA’s latest efforts for clean coasts, and released a statement on the latest round of NOAA’s grants.
“Our coasts are the gateway to our ocean and on the front lines of climate change impacts. We are grateful to NOAA for investing in coastal habitat restoration. Projects like those announced will pay dividends for decades to come, protecting coastal communities and helping ocean coastal wildlife to flourish,” said Vice President of Ocean Conservancy Jeff Waters in the statement.
“These grants to safeguard our ocean ecosystems, coasts and communities–especially historically underserved communities–are a defining legacy of the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will benefit all of us,” said Waters.
