With support from NOAA, Hawaiʻi Land Trust is restoring a 15th-century Native Hawaiian aquaculture site at Waiheʻe Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Refuge in Maui. This human-made ecosystem will provide food for community members and habitat for wildlife while protecting coral reefs offshore. Hawaiʻi conservationists have returned to ancient practices to help restore healthy ecosystems. NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the Trust $804,000 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for this project. Contact: Alex Loomis.

NOAA and the American Fisheries Society are thrilled to honor Damon Moore with the 2024 Dr. Nancy Foster Habitat Conservation Award for his exceptional work protecting and restoring Florida coastal ecosystems. Damon has helped to create or enhance more than 2,000 acres of coastal wetland and upland habitat, all while putting communities at the center of his work. Contact: Dani Weissman.

As work progresses on construction and monitoring efforts of the Herring River Restoration Project in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, residents will begin to see environmental changes, transforming freshwater marsh into saltwater marsh. In this video, NOAA’s Danielle Perry and other project partners explain how the ecosystem will recreate itself. NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the Town of Wellfleet $14.7 million to support the restoration of the Herring River estuary. Funding comes through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Contact: Danielle Perry.

Join us as we celebrate the mighty oyster this week! Oysters are a tasty seafood, but they also grow in reefs that provide great habitat and help filter water. From October 21-25, we’ll highlight NOAA’s work in oyster reef restoration and to support oyster aquaculture. Check out the NOAA Fisheries website and our social media (including our X account, @NOAAHabitat) for updates all week long. Contact: Kim Couranz.

We’re working with partners to restore and conserve fish habitat and to enhance coastal community resilience to climate change in the Middle Peninsula Habitat Focus Area. Wetlands and oyster reefs are important parts of the equation. Contact: Andrew Larkin.

In September,  the Trustee Council for the Metal Bank Superfund Site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania released the Final Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment to restore habitat and natural resources injured as a result of contaminants being released at the site. The Trustees will implement the Kensington & Tacony Trail Living Shoreline and Tacony Boat Ramp Project, which includes shoreline and riparian habitat  restoration, and nearshore improvements. Contact: Rich Takacs.

The removal of four large dams from the Klamath River allows salmon to again reach about 400 miles of their original habitat that had been blocked for many decades. The final step in removing the Klamath dams involved dismantling a final cofferdam that temporarily diverted the river to allow for deconstruction activities. In advance of that step, NOAA Fisheries convened a forum called the Fisheries Coordination Team to discuss how to best protect fish and water quality. It included experts from tribes, states, and other federal agencies. Learn more about this effort.

NOAA and partners recently surveyed and characterized coral communities along the West Florida Escarpment between 1,500 - 2,500 meters, and developed husbandry and outplanting techniques for deep corals as part of the larger effort to understand and restore mesophotic and deep benthic communities that were injured by the Deepwater Horizon spill. The 2010 oil spill released an estimated 134 million gallons of oil into the northern Gulf of Mexico, injuring more than 770 square miles of deep-sea habitat. 

The Mississippi Trustee Implementation Group will hold a virtual annual public update on November 7 to provide information on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment restoration activities. The video will provide an update on Mississippi’s restoration planning and implementation efforts across all funding streams, as well as  engagement opportunities.