Monitoring Prime Hook NWR, Tidal Marsh Restoration, Hurricane Sandy

This is an announcement for issuing a single source financial assistance award to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Wetland Assessment section. This announcement is for notification purposes only. The intent of the award is to continue monitoring activities to evaluate the success of the large Tidal Marsh Restoration Project completed at Prime Hook NWR after Hurricane Sandy. Working with partners, refuge staff will continue to monitor key performance metrics such as wetland integrity, vegetation community recovery, water quality, hydrology, and marsh elevation. This monitoring program was initiated in 2010 first to develop baseline data on the refuge wetland habitats, in partnership with the DNREC. The monitoring program was subsequently funded as a means for monitoring restoration outcomes to compare with pre-Sandy and pre-restoration conditions, in continued partnership with DNREC. Results from the monitoring have been instrumental in guiding adaptive management of the restoration project, and have been shared with the larger restoration science community at a number of professional conferences. This project promotes conservation stewardship by monitoring the continued success of the large tidal marsh restoration project conducted at Prime Hook NWR. The project was the largest of its kind and has served as a model case study for other land managers around the country. This project supports Department of the Interior financial assistance priority #3; Restoring trust with the local community. This project promotes trust with local communities by continuing a highly successful collaborative partnership with State and University partners. Community engagement on this project has been extremely high, because of the proximity of the restoration project to the nearby communities and concerns about flooding that were eased with its completion. Providing ongoing monitoring and sharing information about our restoration success will help maintain the trust with the community that has been gained over recent years. The DNREC Wetland Assessment section is the recipient of this award due to the unique qualification to continue monitoring that they have previously conducted under a prior agreement.