News

The Pacific Marine and Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership (PMEP) is partnering with the Friends of South Slough Reserve to develop a synthesis of eelgrass restoration techniques along the U.S. West Coast to inform the restoration community, promote successful restoration of eelgrass, and provide greater clarity regarding the conditions where mitigation would (and conversely would not) be an appropriate intervention as opposed to other management strategies.

This Request for Proposals seeks to identify a contractor to complete this synthesis and report. The work will include compiling and synthesizing restoration and mitigation techniques, successes, and failures along the U.S. West Coast through literature reviews and interviews with restoration practitioners and researchers.

The Request for Proposals can be accessed here.

How to Respond

Please read the full Request for Proposals for instructions regarding what information to include and the preferred format for information. Incomplete or late proposals will not be considered. The deadline for proposals submissions is Friday, July 31, 2020 at 5:00PM PDT.

PMEP is pleased to announce the following projects have been selected for funding through the National Fish Habitat Partnership.  These projects represent important conservation priorities of PMEP.  $192,817 has been awarded to the partnership through the Fish and Aquatic Conservation Program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the following five projects:

• Seestrom Tidelands Restoration Project
• Columbia-Pacific Passage, Hungry Harbor Restoration
• Neskowin Fish Passage Improvement Project
• Enhancement of Olympia oysters to provide heterogeneous habitat for fish and invertebrates
• A regional scale assessment of fish habitat along the nearshore of greater Puget Sound

Read more about these and other PMEP funded project here.

PMEP-supported Bear River Estuary Restoration is included in the National Fish Habitat Partnership list of “Waters to Watch” for 2020. This annual list represents a collection of strategic conservation efforts implemented on rivers, streams, estuaries, and lakes to protect, restore, or enhance fish habitat. These voluntary, locally-driven projects represent some of the top conservation activities completed or in progress by 20 regionally-based Fish Habitat Partnerships throughout the country. These projects are carried out under the goals and objectives of the 2012  National Fish Habitat Action Plan. These conservation projects conserve freshwater, estuarine, and marine habitats essential to many fish and wildlife species. These activities are fundamental to the overall success of the National Fish Habitat Partnership that was established in 2006.

“The projects, which focus on the protection, restoration, and enhancement of fish habitats across the country, are a sampling of the top priorities of our partnerships,” said Ed Schriever, Chair of the National Fish Habitat Board. “The Waters to Watch campaign provides people an opportunity to learn about our projects in a more in-depth way, which exemplifies collaborative conservation involving many partners.”

The 2020 “Waters to Watch” list and associated Fish Habitat Partnerships

1. Bear River Estuary, Washington (Retrospective) – Pacific Marine and Estuarine Partnership
2. Boone River Watershed, Iowa (Retrospective) – Fishers and Farmers Partnership
3. Chipola River, Florida (Retrospective) – Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership
4. Deep Creek Town Diversion and Warner Basin, Oregon (Retrospective) – Western Native Trout Initiative
5. Maunalua Bay, Hawai’i – Hawai’i Fish Habitat Partnership
6. Minsi Lake, Pennsylvania – Reservoir Fish Habitat Partnership
7. San Juan and Santiago Watersheds, California – California Fish Passage Forum
8. San Luis Obispo Creek, California – Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative
9. Shoshone Springs, California (Retrospective) – Desert Fish Habitat Partnership
10. Tularosa River, New Mexico – Desert Fish Habitat Partnership