The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group will hold its annual public meeting via an interactive webinar on November 5, 2020. The webinar is open to everyone; we encourage your attendance and participation.

During this meeting, we will present updates on the Open Ocean Restoration Area’s restoration and monitoring and adaptive management activities. We’ll also provide an opportunity for questions and answers after the updates are presented.

• Date: November 5, 2020
• Time: 11:00 a.m. – noon CT
• Registration: Please register for the webinar at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register

Update: This story updated on November 6 to include a copy of the presentation slides, available below.

The Texas Trustee Implementation Group for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill held its 2020 annual public meeting on November 4, 2020 via an online video presentation. The presentation included updates on the Texas Trustee Implementation Group’s current restoration planning efforts and several ongoing restoration projects, and will describe future planning efforts.

The video presentation could have been viewed at any time on November 4, 2020 from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.

The public had the

The Texas Trustee Implementation Group is beginning the process of considering restoration activities that will address injuries caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. At this time, through December 10, 2020, we would like your restoration project ideas that benefit wetland, coastal, and nearshore habitats, and living coastal and marine resources, and restore water quality through nonpoint source nutrient reduction in the Texas Restoration Area.

In our next restoration plan, a range of projects will be considered to address injuries to the restoration types listed below:

• Wetlands

The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group has approved a final plan including construction activities for the restoration of wetlands, coastal, and nearshore habitats injured in the Louisiana Restoration Area as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  It is estimated that these projects will restore almost 4,500 acres of marsh and more than 130 acres of ridge habitats in the Barataria and Pontchartrain basins.

Final Phase 2 Restoration Plan #1.2: Barataria Basin Ridge and Marsh Creation Project Spanish Pass Increment and Lake Borgne Marsh Creation Project Increment (PDF, 154 pages)

Th

The Mississippi Trustee Implementation Group will hold its virtual annual public meeting on November 10, 2020, to provide updates on Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) restoration activities. The NRDA updates will be presented during the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality 2020 Virtual Restoration Summit to be held via a webinar.

The Virtual Restoration Summit will provide an update on Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s restoration planning efforts across all funding streams and the summit will provide stakeholder engagement opportunities. We look forward to

The Mississippi Trustee Implementation Group has released its second restoration plan. The Plan addresses some of the injuries to coastal habitats and oysters caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Mississippi Restoration Area.  

The Mississippi Trustee Implementation Group Final Restoration Plan II and Environmental Assessment: Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats and Oysters (PDF 234 pages), evaluates a range of project alternatives and identifies the preferred project alternatives. After considering the analysis and public comments, we selected four projects for

The Louisiana trustees recently released the Gear Comparison Study for Sampling Nekton in Barataria Basin Marshes report (PDF, 67 pages). Funded by the Trustee Implementation Group, it summarizes a field study that compared nekton catch with different types of gear in Barataria Basin. Nekton are aquatic animals that swim, such as fish, shrimp, and crabs. Sampling these organisms helps us understand how restoration work is helping them, and their habitat, recover.

The report compares nekton sampling gear to understand which are better in different scenarios and monitoring needs. We will use

Update: Information from the September 3 webinar is now available below.

The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group released its Draft Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment #7: Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats, and Birds (PDF, 299 pages). We accepted comments through September 22, 2020, and held a public webinar on September 3. More information about the public comment period the webinar are below.

The draft plan includes proposed projects that restore the Wetlands, Coastal and Nearshore Habitat and Birds restoration types. It includes five proposed preferred alternatives

On July 22, 2020 the Open Ocean Restoration Area Trustees held a webinar to present the updated Open Ocean Monitoring and Adaptive Management Strategy released in June. The webinar included an overview of initial priorities for monitoring  and adaptive management and an opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

  The priorities, informed by stakeholder input obtained during a workshop and outreach event,  are:

1. Evaluation of restoration outcomes and progress.
2. Characteristics of key stressors on open ocean resources.
3. Assessment of focal open ocean resources and important habitats.

Info

Update: The September 9 Annual Meeting presentation slides and notes are available below.

The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group held its annual public meeting via a webinar on September 9, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. CT.

During this meeting, the Trustees presented updates on the Louisiana Restoration Area plans, projects and other activities. We also provided an opportunity for attendees to submit written comments using the web-based “chat” function in the webinar after the updates are presented. 

• Date: September 9, 2020
• Time: 6:00 p.m. CT
• Presentation slides and meeting notes:
  • Louisiana