Restore Americas Estuaries

Programs: Community-based coastal habitat restoration: restore america's estuaries (rae) and its alliance members have worked since 1996 to restore our nation's critical coastal areas and bring them back to life. Through its community-based restoration program (crp), rae joins with government agencies, corporation, civic organizations, scientists, and local volunteers on restoration projects with tangible impacts. Among our goals are the return of abundant fisheries, strong local economies, and shorelines that are resilient to storms and flooding. Rae's crp has funded hundreds of local restoration projects throughout the united states, achieving real results, engaging people in their communities, and giving them a lifelong desire to restore our coasts.

coastal blue carbon initiative: coastal wetland ecosystems, such as sea grass beds, mangroves, salt marsh, and other tidal wetlands, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store carbon in wetland sils. Rae's blue carbon initiative seeks to increase public and private investment in and priorization of estuary habitat restoration through the recognition of the climate miltigation values of these habitats.

living shorelines - coastal communities around the country face increasingly difficult and costly challenges due to sea-level rise, increased severity of storms, and similar problems. Historically, the response has been "hard" solutions, such as sea walls and bulkheads, which actually worsen storm hazard risks, erosion, and loss of habitat. Living shorelines and nature-based solutions are a suite of techniques using "softer" approaches uniquely tailored to each site, which help stabilize shorelines while increasing habitat value. Rae's living shorelines program works to raise awareness of these softer approaches and increase their use via efforts such as our national workshop, living shorelines academy, community of practice, federal policy work, and more.

snep - restore america's estuaries was selected by the u. S. Epa to manage a competitive sub-award grant program to support projects that protect, conserve, and restore the coastal ecosystems and their watersheds in southeast new england. Rae will create an ecosystem-scale, multi-stakeholder strategy to assist epa in advancing ecosystem resiliency, protect and restore habitat and ecosystem function, and apply innovative policy, science, and technology to the management of the coastal systems in this region.