Estuary Planning Underway

After agreeing on what had to be done to develop a comprehensive management plan, the South Shore Estuary Reserve Council considered how to do so within budget - and by the deadline mandated in the Act.

New York State Secretary of State Alexander F. Treadwell, as chair of the Council, determined that the Department of State and other government organizations, such as the State University, local governments and the counties of Nassau and Suffolk, have staff highly qualified to undertake both the technical and administrative aspects of this work. Where expertise for a particular topic was not available through government, the Department could seek consultant services.

Staff at the Department of State's Division of Coastal Resources and Waterfront Revitalization, with the help and cooperation of many county and local agencies and the Council's committees, are conducting this year's planning work: inventories that will be the underpinnings of the analyses and recommendations to come.

Work plans are underway. Staff are compiling existing information on living resources, water resources, land cover, demography, flooding and erosion, land use, embayment uses, underwater lands, and historic, archaeological and scenic resources. The Department is expanding its geographic information system to support these efforts. Staff also will oversee an inventory of educational programs, and work with consultants who will develop an economic valuation methodology and determine how the public perceives the estuary and its resources.

In partnership with the Department, Nassau and Suffolk Counties and each of the estuary's six towns are providing critical data and technical help. Their agencies and officials will be reviewing draft products.

It's clear that planning for the estuary's future is a high priority. Governor George E. Pataki included $415,000 in south shore estuary funding in his proposed budget for the 1996-97 fiscal year. The department is using other federal and state funding to commit an additional $450,000 of staff resources for 1996-97 estuary efforts.

Inventories, Education Programs Initiated
Based on the advice of the Council, the Department of State also is funding the following estuary improvement and educational projects:

• William Wise, Associate Director of Marine Sciences Research Center and Director of the Living Marine Resources Institute, SUNY at Stony Brook, and member of the Council's Technical Advisory Committee, is writing a natural and human history overview of the south shore estuary. The overview will be an introduction to the management plan and an educational piece -The Town of Oyster Bay is conducting a public education program on mitigating the negative impacts of waterfowl waste on the estuary's resources
• The Town of Babylon is educating the public about its wetland restoration program
• The Citizens Advisory Committee is moving ahead with several public education projects (see article in this issue)
• New York Sea Grant Institute is compiling and evaluating pertinent information about methods to determine whether wetland restoration efforts actually produce finfish nursery habitat. Sea Grant is sponsoring a conference on the uses of breakwaters in integrating shoreline protection with estuarine habitat enhancement, and also is holding a conference and workshops on water quality research needs of the estuary.

The Council is interested in hearing about other ongoing estuary improvement projects and would welcome the opportunity to report on your organization's efforts in an upcoming newsletter.