Call for Nominations: The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association 2020 Best Restored Shores Award Due July 17, 2020

ASBPA is calling for nominations for its Best Restored Shores Award. This award aims to recognize projects that enhance the environment particularly on low-energy and moderate-energy shorelines.  ASBPA will accept nominations for the 2020 awards through July 17.  Nominations can include:

• Back bay projects
• Living shoreline projects (including large freshwater lakes)
• Beneficial use of dredge material for environmental projects
• Seagrass, shellfish, reef, and other submerged habitat projects
• Wetlands, mangroves, and other intertidal habitat and shoreline enhancement, restoration, or creation

ASBPA seeks to recognize well designed and implemented projects focused on restoring natural resources to enhance shoreline resilience.  Especially suitable are projects that address environmental degradation, storm impacts, climate change, and sea level rise — factors that  increasingly threaten the nation’s coastal, estuarine and Great Lakes communities. ASBPA understands the time, effort, and money that it takes to restore inland and bay shorelines and we want to acknowledge your accomplishments.  “Continued public support for shore restoration is crucial to building coastal resilience to storms and rising seas,” says Tony Pratt president of ASBPA. “Successfully planning and implementing shoreline restoration projects can be challenging and too often their far-reaching economic benefits go unnoticed.”

2019 Best Restored Shore Winner, Mississippi Pipeline marsh restoration project (before and after)

So, whether your project involves a Great Lake or an estuary, a mangrove or an oyster reef, if it resulted in recreating thriving habitats or improved water quality to benefit multiple uses and aid local economies, then you should apply to be a Best Restored Shores project. To these ends, ASBPA encourages nominations for new or established (e.g., completed construction in the last 3 years) projects for the 2020 Best Restored Shores Award.  Nominations must be submitted electronically to Bestrestoredshores@asbpa.org by July 17, 2020. The nomination text must be in MS Word, WordPerfect, or PDF format, and photos must be saved in JPEG or TIF formats. All applicants must include in their nomination package the following information to ensure a complete application:

1. Nominator’s contact information (name, address, phone, email).

2. The name and contact information for the nominee’s public affairs specialist who will be coordinating with the media for press releases, etc. when the awardees are named.

3. The name of the project manager and the construction contractor. If consulting firms were used in the design and/or permitting, provide the consulting firm’s principal scientist, biologist, ecologist or and/or engineer as appropriate.

4. Project location map

5. Project narrative, including the following:
   1. Effectiveness and Purpose. Describe the primary objective(s) of the project and any secondary objectives. Demonstrate the effectiveness of the project in meeting both primary and any secondary goals.
   2. Design features including constraints and challenges. Provide a comprehensive but concise description of the design. Identify the issues that influenced design.
   3. Construction Methods. Provide a comprehensive but concise description of construction methods. Projects with innovative design and construction methods that were effective and able to meet project’s purposes will be favored as demonstrated with monitoring or other evidence.
   4. Funding. Describe the funding sources and how any obstacles or hurdles were overcome. Projects involving public – private partnerships and monitoring to document project performance success will be favored.

6. Several professional-quality color photographs of the restored beach with release (tourist development councils and local resorts are good sources for photos of this quality). Include before and after restoration photographs.

7. A statement about why you consider this shoreline a best restored shore in the United States. (It is important to let the Committee know that you are passionate about your project and that the restoration project was a benefit to the shoreline habitat).

8. Quantified outcomes (benefits resulting from the successfully executed project) are especially helpful.

9. If available, please include historical data for the restored shoreline or area.

Winners will be notified in advance and ASBPA will prepare press releases to notify the media of the winner. Winners must agree to provide press releases to their local media and arrange for a representative to be present at the 2020 ASBPA National Coastal Conference online to accept the award and present.

All materials submitted will become property of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association and will not be returned.