Photo Credit: H. Crane
The IRLNEP is uniting 10 partners across the watershed to implement a $9.4 million NOAA Transformational Habitat Restoration grant. This project emphasizes the IRLNEP’s unique capabilities in leveraging the structure of its Management Conference to foster a collaborative community of practice.
Together, these organizations will spearhead ecosystem-based restoration of seagrasses, oyster reefs, living shorelines, wetlands, clam populations and fish reefs throughout the IRL.
This collective effort not only highlights the IRLNEP’s ability to drive large-scale environmental initiatives but also marks a significant step forward in the preservation and revitalization of one of our nation’s most vital estuarine ecosystems.
Goals
This project responds to an urgent need to restore essential fish habitats, enhance ecosystem functions and increase resilience in the IRL system, an estuary impaired by a decade of harmful algal blooms.
These blooms reduced seagrass coverage by over 89% from 2011 to 2020 and affected other habitats, communities and species of concern throughout the estuary.
Project Targets
- Restore 73 acres of seagrass
- 257,800 planting units/2,726,150 shoots
- Restore 7.0 acres of oyster reefs
- Restore 2,125 acres of wetlands
- Restore 8,450 linear feet of shoreline
- 2,928 plantings units of mangroves
- 6,985 planting units of salt marsh
Our Partners
- Bethune Cookman University
- Brevard Zoo
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
- Florida Oceanographic Society
- Indian River County
- Indian River Land Trust
- Indian River State College
- Riverside Conservancy
- The St. Johns River Water Management District
- Sea and Shoreline, LLC
- St. Lucie County
- The University of Central Florida
