Middle Peninsula Nearshore Habitat Restoration Workshop
On September 24, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office co-hosted the one-day Middle Peninsula Nearshore Habitat Restoration Workshop with the Virginia Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The workshop goals were to build awareness among attendees of existing and proposed nearshore habitat restoration projects within the Middle Peninsula of Virginia, and to foster partnerships to design and implement those projects. The long-term vision is to build a community of practice, specific to the Middle Peninsula, to collaboratively design and implement nearshore habitat restoration projects that support resilient coastal communities and economies.
The Middle Peninsula of Virginia includes the watersheds of the Piankatank River, Mobjack Bay, and the York River, as provided in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Chesapeake Bay Comprehensive Plan. The Middle Peninsula was selected as the Virginia priority subwatershed within the Comprehensive Plan – a comprehensive and integrated water resources management plan to assist with the implementation of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. The Middle Peninsula includes two of the ten tributaries designated for oyster reef restoration as part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement – the Piankatank River and the Lower York River.
The Workshop was designed to address the lack of shovel-ready projects (those that are ready to apply for funding to implement restoration) in Virginia by assisting with development of project concepts. The focus of this workshop was on nearshore habitat projects that would conserve or restore wetlands, marshes, submerged aquatic vegetation, oyster reefs, and living shorelines. These habitats are important to the resilience and adaptive capacity of coastal communities as sea level rise and other climate-related changes occur.
The agenda consisted of time for participants to interact and build awareness of shared capacities, overviews of the natural resource trends in the area and the importance of natural resources to local communities, an introduction to the Chesapeake Bay Comprehensive Plan, presentations on projects or ideas for projects to restore nearshore habitats, demonstrations of decision-support tools, and a guided panel discussion among representatives of funding organizations. Workshop proceedings will be distributed soon. Contact Andrew Larkin for more information.