CLF helps coastal communities: bring New England's estuaries back to life.

• Position: PROGRESS REPORT - Conservation Law Foundation

BACKGROUND

Estuaries, where fresh water meets the sea. are hotspots of biological diversity and productivity. Estuaries take many forms: salt marshes, mud flats, tidal rivers and salt ponds, to name a few. They are essential for many marine fish, hawks and wading and migratory birds. They provide critical ecological services such as pollution filtration, flood control and storm surge reduction and protection Recent studies suggest salt marshes may be among the highest carbon fixing areas on the planet.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

THE PROBLEM

Over time, human activities have weakened and oven destroyed estuaries that are crucial to maintaining our fragile ecosystems. Experts estimate that we have lost over 50 percent of our salt marshes in the Gulf of Maine, and that pattern is repeated across the country. In many places, we have loved our salt marshes to death by building on them or polluting them in our eagerness to live or work close to the ocean.

CLF IN ACTION

In 1995, CLF and nine other regional groups around the country created Restore America's Estuaries (RAE), a national organization dedicated to addressing this challenge. CLF provided funds to Local partners in New England interested in restoring salt marsh and rivers. CLF also advocated for expanded federal funding for estuary restoration and educated the New England Congressional delegation on the benefits of restoration. As a result, CLF has brought over $1,000,000 in federal funds - an amount that was more than doubted through local sources of cash and in-kind labor--to successful estuary restoration work in the region.

PROGRESS!

In partnership with RAE--today, a robust coalition of 12 organizations--CLF has helped numerous communities including: Addison, ME to understand its options for a large dam removal project; Sandwich, MA to expand the tidal passages under high-ways and railroad beds to return saltwater flows to their iconic marshes; Quincy. MA to replant salt marsh plants on barrier beaches...