Shovel ready: Lessons learned from implementing recovery act habitat restoration

In February 2009, NOAA received $167 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to restore coastal and marine habitat and help jumpstart the nation’s economy by creating and sustaining jobs.  The agency funded 50 mid-scale habitat restoration projects by July from among 814 applications requesting over $3 billion, addressing priorities including resilience, climate change adaptation and threatened and endangered species.  When complete, these projects will:  restore 8,700 acres of habitat; remove obsolete and unsafe dams; open 700 stream miles where fish migrate and spawn; remove 850 metric tons of debris; rebuild oyster and other shellfish habitat; and protect 11,750 acres to reduce threats to coral reefs, in addition to creating and retaining jobs.  A key evaluation criteria focused on ‘shovel readiness’ to identify projects where design, NEPA analysis, consultations and other environmental compliance was complete or could be attained quickly, so that construction would begin shortly after funding was awarded.  For restoration, unlike infrastructure projects, 100% design was seldom complete, and finalizing consultations and permitting did not always proceed as anticipated.  This presentation will describe the early lessons learned from these ARRA projects that inform project management and may increase implementation effectiveness of future mid-scale habitat restoration efforts.