Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Plan
In March 2013, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (NFWF GEBF) awarded $3.6 million to the State of Mississippi for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Plan. This multi-phase, three-year project was for the development a comprehensive plan for restoring and conserving Mississippi’s coastal natural resources under the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund. In October 2015, The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) released Version 1 of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Plan. This plan outlined a comprehensive plan for restoring and conserving Mississippi’s coastal natural resources under the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund. This planning effort used the Community Conversations and Resource Summits (see below), as well as the Mississippi Comprehensive Ecosystem Restoration Tool (MCERT) and the Decision Support System (DSS), to identify three general restoration program areas: Land Resources, Water Resources, and Coastal and Living Marine Resources.
Because the Plan issued in 2015 is a living document, MDEQ released the 2016 Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Plan Addendum in November of that year. The addendum included science-based goals based on the overall restoration vision called “endpoints.” Additionally, the addendum included information on data updated to MCERT.
The current version, the 2017 Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Plan, is a full update to the existing plan, and the project’s efforts are now complete. Further planning by MDEQ will take place under a separate award.
Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Plan Webinar
MDEQ hosted a webinar on March 1, 2016 to provide stakeholders an opportunity to learn more about the Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Plan. The webinar provided an overview of the Plan, MCERT, and the DSS restoration tool.
Thank you for those that attended the webinar. A recording of the webinar is available below, and the slides can be downloaded in PDF format here.
Please Click Here to see the answers to questions posed during the webinar.
Community Conversations and Resource Summits
As an initial part of the planning process for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Plan, Mississippi held a series of Community Conversations and Resources Summits. The Community Conversations were held in Hancock County (Bay Saint Louis), Harrison County (Gulfport), and Jackson County (Ocean Springs). A number of non-governmental organizations, community organizations, and state and federal agencies were assisted in facilitating small group discussions where community members were able to voice individual values, ideal characteristics, and visions for their communities. There were over 200 participants, representing 125 organizations, across the three coastal county locations.
Additionally, Mississippi held a series of Resource Summits where community members were also able to identify and prioritize restoration targets and activities or actions associated with those targets. Hundreds of coastal residents attended those meetings and gave valuable input in identifying priority resources for the Mississippi Restoration effort. The three priority resources identified during the Community Conversations were Water Quality, Land Conservation and Marine Living Resources. Those priorities served as the subject matter for the Resource Summits.
