When researchers traveled to a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they were astonished to find an estimated 38 million pieces of trash washed up on the beaches.
http://www.sunherald.com/news/nation-world/article150727332.html Press Releases
Longleaf Pine Initiative in Mississippi
Jackson, Miss. – The United States Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
has financial assistance available to qualified Mississippi landowners wanting to create or restore longleaf pine
stands on their land. This Longleaf Pine Initiative (LLPI) is offered under the Environmental Quality Incentive
Program (EQIP) to qualified landowners and forest managers in Central and Southern Mississippi working to
restore longleaf ecosystems.
Longleaf pine forests have nearly vanished, but a coordinated conservation effort, led by NRCS and other
conservation partners, is helping this unique ecosystem of the Southeast recover. Longleaf pines provide
valuable forest products, pine straw production, scenic beauty, good wildlife habitat and harbor many
threatened and endangered species. There are 29 threatened and endangered species that depend on these
forests for survival. Two specific species are found in Mississippi, the
gopher tortoise and the black pine snake.
“NRCS is committed to working with land managers to help restore and expand this critical ecosystem,”
stated Kurt Readus, NRCS state conservationist for Mississippi. “Longleaf pine forests provide vital habitat to
a variety of species as well as valuable timber. We look forward to seeing what we can accomplish with our partners.”
NRCS provides technical and financial assistance to help landowners and land managers plant and manage
longleaf forests. LLPI is in its eighth year and has helped restore more than 350,000 acres of longleaf forests.
Applications for all NRCS financial assistance programs are accepted on a continuous sign-up process
with specific sign-up deadlines being established to rank, contract and fund qualified tracts of land.
Applications for the Longleaf Pine Initiative received by
June 16, 2017 will be considered for funding
in the third ranking period.
For additional information about the Longleaf Pine Initiative, visit
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/. To find your local NRCS office, visit
http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=MS&agency=NRCS. NRCS financial assistance covers part of the cost to implement conservation practices. Interested landowners
are encouraged to contact their
local USDA service center or go to the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program link for technical and financial assistance information. For more information, visit our website
at
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/ms/home/. Applications are available at
GetStarted. EPA Launches New ‘Waters of the U.S.’ Website
New site aims to provide transparency and information about EPA review of ‘WOTUS’ 05/15/2017
Contact Information:
U.S. EPA Media Relations (
press@epa.gov)
WASHINGTON – EPA is launching a
new website (
www.epa.gov/wotus-rule) today to provide the public with information about EPA’s review of the definition of “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) as set out in the 2015 “Clean Water Rule.” The site replaces the website developed for the 2015 rulemaking process.
“EPA is restoring states’ important role in the regulation of water by reviewing WOTUS,”
said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “The president has directed us to review this regulation to address the concerns from farmers and local communities that it creates unnecessary burdens and inhibits economic growth. This website aims to provide the public with information about our actions to meet the president’s directive.”
In the spirit of transparency, the site will provide the public with relevant information explaining the Agency’s actions, along with the Department of the Army and the Army Corps of Engineers (the agencies), to review the WOTUS rule, including how the agencies are working with our local, state and tribal partners, to examine our role in the regulation of water under the Clean Water Act. All the pages, information and documentation from the Clean Water Rule site will remain available in the EPA archived site, archive.epa.gov.
EPA is initiating consultation and coordination with stakeholders and the public as the agencies implement the February 28, 2017, Presidential Executive Order on “Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the ‘Waters of the United States’ Rule.”
The February Order states that it is in the national interest to ensure that the Nation’s navigable waters are kept free from pollution, while at the same time promoting economic growth, minimizing regulatory uncertainty, and showing due regard for the roles of Congress and the States under the Constitution. It also directs the agencies to review the existing Clean Water Rule (promulgated in 2015) for consistency with these priorities and to publish for notice and comment a proposed rule rescinding or revising the rule, as appropriate and consistent with the law. Further, the Order directs the agencies to consider interpreting the term “navigable waters,” as defined in the Clean Water Act at 33 U.S.C. 1362(7), in a manner consistent with the opinion of Justice Antonin Scalia in
Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715 (2006). “Waters of the United States” are those waters that are protected under the Clean Water Act.
To meet these objectives, the agencies intend to follow an expeditious, two-step process that will provide certainty across the country: 1) an initial rulemaking to rescind the 2015 rule and recodify the regulatory definition that had been in place for decades and is currently being used in light of a nationwide stay of the 2015 rule, and thus maintains the status quo; and 2) a rulemaking to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” consistent with direction in the February 28, 2017 E.O.
EPA Awards Grant to Mobile Bay National Estuary Program: Protecting Natural Resources and Strengthening Local Economies
05/15/2017
Contact Information:
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program will receive approximately $344,000 in the form of a federal grant appropriated by Congress to conserve and improve working waterfronts and preserve fishing communities, within its 71,500 square mile watershed.
“Having a healthy Mobile Bay is vital to the environmental and economic health of America,” said
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Productive fisheries are the foundation of many coastal communities and they need to be protected, and the National Estuary Program is a place-based program that is helping to protect and restore the water quality and ecological integrity of estuaries of national significance.”
“The National Estuary Program is very important to the ecosystem and economy in coastal Alabama. I applaud the EPA for their continued support of this program that allows local leaders to execute important conservation projects on Mobile Bay. Through this important partnership, we can continue to ensure Mobile Bay is vibrant and healthy,” said
U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (AL-1).
Download B-Roll:
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/521939/epa-awards-grant-mobile-bay-national-estuary-program –
Bernice Smith, PhD., EPA Costal Management Branch Chief, “The Mobile Bay Grant will be used to improve and conserve water dependent businesses
; working waterfronts as well as fisheries communities.”
“The Mobile Bay Watershed is critical to strengthening our state's economy and protecting our natural resources,” said
Roberta Swann, Director of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. “These EPA funds will help continue the good work of the citizens of Alabama to preserve their watershed, the aquatic life that depends on clean water, and the many jobs that depend on a healthy Mobile Bay.”
"The Mobile Bay National Estuaries Program has a long history of bringing various stakeholders together to work collectively on implementing our local Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan," said
Mark Berte, the Executive Director of the Alabama CoastalFoundation and Co-Chair of the NEP's Community Resources Committee. "This EPA grant will help further that Plan by improving both our environment and economy, which are intrinsically linked."
About the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program Footage:
https://youtu.be/aTyfRYKe90c – Mobile Bay National Estuary. Members of the media interested in down loading this footage should contact Bethany Dicky,
bdickey@mobilebaynep.com, 251-459-8870.
Established in 1995, the Mobile Bay program has enhanced public awareness of key management challenges through community meetings and support for volunteer monitoring by citizens. Local governments and businesses have been active participants in supporting watershed activities to realize the valuable economic and environmental benefits being achieved. At present, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program is coordinating the development and implementation of watershed management plans for all of the tidally influenced watersheds covering drainage areas along the Alabama coast from Mississippi to Florida. For example, the stakeholder recommendations for the D’Olive Creek Watershed Management Plan has resulted in restoration of 9,520 linear feet of degraded streams, reduction of 4,700 tons/year of sediment delivery, 63 acres of restored riparian buffer and wetlands, and over a 90 percent reduction in sediment loads, positively impacting sea grass beds in D’Olive Bay and Mobile Bay.
Since 1987, the EPA National Estuary Program has made a unique and lasting contribution to the protection and restoration of estuaries on behalf of the nation’s environmental and economic interests. A network of 28 National Estuary Programs is located along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts and in Puerto Rico. The NEP employs a watershed approach, extensive public participation and collaborative problem-solving and science-based approaches to address watershed challenges.
To learn more about the Mobile Bay Program, visit:
http://www.mobilebaynep.com/ To learn more about the National Estuary Program, visit:
https://www.epa.gov/nep
