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Limited Time left to Nominate a Project for the Best Restored Shores Award
By Shannon Cunniff, Shannon Cunniff Consulting, and Peter Seidle, Applied Technology and Management
We’re all looking forward to July 4th as we hope it means the nation has turned a significant corner in its fight with CoVid 19 and that we will have more freedom to gather. It also means that July 17th is rapidly approaching. And that means you have only a short while to pull together a nomination for this year’s Best Restored Shores Award. Information on how to nominate a project is found at https://asbpa.org/about-us/awards-program/.
Luckily, the nomination process is super easy — short and straightforward. Anyone with familiarity with a project should be able to pull the needed information together quickly. Still, don’t wait for the July 17th deadline to apply! Make sure you give yourself time to pull together documentation (e.g., data and good then-and-now pictures) to help tell a compelling story.
Wondering if your project is eligible? If it involves restoring a shoreline habitat and is not a beach nourishment project, it likely is. Shoreline restoration projects from US coasts (West, East, Gulf, and Great Lakes) and US protectorates and territories that involve coastal back bays or large freshwater lakes; seagrass, shellfish, coral reef, and other submerged habitats; urban waterfronts; wetlands, mangroves, and other intertidal habitats; living shorelines; and beneficial use of dredged material.
Assuming it fits our “restored shore” categorization then, was it completed by 2019? If yes, it’s eligible! Why 2019? To allow time for gathering engineering and ecological evidence of the restoration project’s success.
As always, projects with innovative design and/or construction methods, implemented at a scale relevant to the challenges, will be favored.
So please consider nominating a project. And then get ready to join us and the award winners in New Orleans for the National Conference to hear all about the secrets to successful shore restoration.