The national oceanic and atmospheric administration is providing $5,999,290 in federal funding to the california state coastal conservancy through the FY2024 and FY2025 coastal zone management habitat…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources $5.999 million through the Coastal Zone Management Estuarine Research Reserves program (CFDA 11.420) to support operations, research, monitoring, stewardship, training, and education activities at the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, located in Biloxi, Mississippi, from October 1, 2025, through March 31, 2027.

The award supports GNDNERR operations encompassing habitat protection, water quality monitoring, and environmental change research consistent with the National Estuarine Research Reserve System's strategic plan and the Grand Bay NERR Management Plan completed in June 2023. Work includes facility operation, research and monitoring, stewardship activities, training, and education programming. The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources will claim pre-award costs of $87.888 million in federal funds for state employee and contractual personnel salaries and expenses from July through September 2025.

The obligated amount is $5.034 million in federal funding, matched by $377.558 million in state funds from the Mississippi Tidelands Trust Fund providing 30 percent cost-share support on all project costs except indirect. The negotiated indirect cost rate is 23.92 percent. The State of Mississippi provides additional annual building repair funding up to $100,000, not counted as match.

A portion of work is executed through partnership with Mississippi State University.

The national oceanic and atmospheric administration is providing $5,999,290 in federal funding to the california state coastal conservancy through the FY2024 and FY2025 coastal zone management habitat protection and restoration grant competition. This funding will increase the safety and productivity of coastal communities within coastal counties through habitat restoration planning, engineering and design projects, habitat restoration implementation projects, and land conservation projects. Specifically, the california state coastal conservancy will use these funds for the ormond beach coastal restoration project -phase 1 to implement transformative restoration of high-priority coastal habitats on 260 acres of public lands in southern california, improve durability of highly sensitive habitats, improve an area impacted by industrial pollution, and enhance access to a clean and restored environment. Ormond beachs proximity to the large population centers in LOS angeles, ventura, and santa barbara counties and large complex of dune/wetland/upland habitat in southern california make IT an important regional restoration opportunity. This project provides the opportunity to restore a similar diversity of wetland habitats that existed historically by removing fill, reconnecting the site hydrologically, and recontouring the area to restore habitats now and into the future. The project will leverage current habitat management actions implemented at the adjacent naval base ventura county point mugu, which will add habitat durability to a large, contiguous coastal wetland complex of over 5,000 acres. The funds specific to this project will complete final habitat restoration designs and engineering, restore 260 acres of coastal dune and wetland habitats and hydrologic connections that support a dynamic and self-sustaining ecosystem at ormond beach, and conduct one year of post-project monitoring.