Funding will be provided to Save the Bay, an organization based in Rhode Island that is developing cutting-edge runnelling techniques that are improving thousands of acres of marshes across the region. Save the Bay’s Restoration Director works with partners throughout the Northeast region, and regularly hosts partners in the field and via webinars to share tips and lessons learned on implementing these techniques. Funds will allow her to provide greater regional support in the form of training salt marsh practitioners and sharing evaluation results of runnelling effectiveness that will inform work throughout the Northeast. In addition to these funds, an additional $30,000 of Coastal program funding will supplement the work in the form of on-the-ground project and contract support through their cooperative agreement #F20AC10709 “Implementing salt marsh adaptation strategies in Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island’s coastal waters”. This funding will allow development of at least five projects at multiple locations in Rhode Island, including State owned marshes (Seapowet, Succotash and Galilee) and back barrier marshes in Winnipaug and Quonochontaug Pond owned by local land trusts, the Audubon Society of Rhode Island and private landowners. Each of these marsh areas are listed as priority project areas in the state guidance documents referenced above.
