PREP Reports & Publications

Abstract

The New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Estuary Program which is a joint local/state/federal program established under the Clean Water Act with the goal of protecting and enhancing nationally significant estuaries. The NHEP’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (Management Plan)for New Hampshire’s estuaries was completed in 2000 and updated in 2005. The Management Plan outlines key issues related to management of New Hampshire’s estuaries and proposes strategies (Action Plans) to protect, enhance, and monitor the state’s estuarine resources. Local stakeholders established the NHEP’s priorities, which include water quality improvements, shellfish resource enhancements, land protection, habitat restoration, and outreach and education. Projects addressing these priorities are undertaken throughout the watershed areas for the Great Bay Estuary, Hampton Seabrook Estuary, and the New Hampshire Atlantic coast. In addition, the NHEP implements a comprehensive monitoring program for the coastal watersheds. The NHEP collects, compiles, and analyzes data for a number of environmental indicators. From its inception through 2007, the NHEP conducted its work in the New Hampshire portion of the watershed area only. In December 2007, the NHEP Management Committee supported expanding the NHEP focus area to the Maine portion of the Great Bay Estuary watershed. Integration of the Maine part of the watershed is expected to occur over a three year period (2008-2010). Each year the NHEP prepares its work plan, which describes recent accomplishments and priority activities and projects to be undertaken in the next year to implement the Management Plan. The NHEP Management Committee reviews and approves the work plan each year. The current work plan represents the thirteenth year of the NHEP’s activities and involvement in collaboratively protecting, enhancing, and monitoring New Hampshire’s estuaries. Section 1 of this document describes activities and priorities to be undertaken by the NHEP as part of the new EPA grant, beginning on October 1, 2008. It identifies the NHEP’s implementation and program goals; describes specific activities to be undertaken by NHEP staff or partners with grant funds to implement the NHEP Management Plan and Monitoring Plan; describes the NHEP’s administrative structure and costs; and presents the overall budget for the Year 13 grant. Section 2 of this document is a report of the NHEP’s ongoing projects and activities for the past year. A table of all ongoing projects supported by the NHEP is provided. The section describes actions undertaken by the NHEP to implement goals and activities identified in work plans from the two previous years (Year Eleven Work Plan: http://www.nhep.unh.edu/resources/pdf/nhep_year_eleven-nhep-06.pdf; and Year Twelve Work Plan: http://www.nhep.unh.edu/resources/pdf/nhep_year_12-nhep-07.pdf); describes how the NHEP’s activities helped support Clean Water Act programs; summarizes meetings and milestones from the last year; and reports on last year’s travel expenses, as required by EPA.

Department

Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership

Publication Date

5-2008

Publisher

New Hampshire Estuaries Project

Document Type

Report

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