Mobile Bay National Estuary Program

Happy Fourth of July weekend!

We hope you have a safe and fun holiday weekend- but don't forget to pick up your fireworks trash after you celebrate! Each year, paper and plastic trash from used fireworks, sparklers, bottle rockets, and more blow into the water and onto our beaches. Do your part to protect our coasts and marine life this weekend and have a happy holiday!

Fireworks photo credit to Mississippi Alabama Sea Grant.

Thank you to everyone who attended last week's Peninsula of Mobile Co-Design Workshop at the Mobile Yacht Club.

The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and Goodwyn Mills Cawood are working with western shore property owners and The Peninsula of Mobile to implement nature-based shoreline approaches to reduce erosion, improve habitat, and strengthen community resilience along Mobile Bay.

We appreciate everyone for attending through the power outage, and for providing their input on the shoreline design concepts. We are looking forward to translating your comments into improvements for Mobile Bay's western shore.

For more information on living shorelines, visit the Mobile Bay NEP website at the link below.
https://www.mobilebaynep.com/resources?q=living+shoreline

Modeling is an effective tool for determining the health and resiliency of an environment, and an informative piece in the decision-making process for growth mitigation or improvement activities. We are looking forward to partnering with Baldwin County on this project, and thank you to Gulf Coast Media for covering the beginning of this work!

The Baldwin County Commission has approved a $60,000 partnership with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Mobile Bay National Estuary Program to create advanced flood modeling tools for the Styx River Watershed. The project will help officials better understand how the river responds during storms, identify flood-prone areas and make better decisions as growth continues in the region.

Using hydrologic models and AGWA software developed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, county planners will be able to evaluate how new developments, land-use changes, detention ponds and stormwater systems could impact flooding before projects are approved. The tools will also assist emergency managers in preparing for severe weather events and responding to flood threats.

As rapid growth continues in the area, officials say the project will provide science-based data to help protect homes, improve flood resilience and support responsible development.

"We want to give resource managers, elected officials and decision makers as much information as they can have to make appropriate decisions on emergency management preparation, approvals and changes in land use based on the growth that we're seeing," Jason Kudulis, director of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, said.


✍️ & 📷: Gabriella Chavez, Report for America Corps Member / GCM Staff Reporter

"Turning the narrative from this kind of fine-grain sediment as being a waste product or some burden in terms of disposal, making this a resource that can be used for habitat creation, for shoreline restoration, really providing more tools and technologies where we can flip that script is one of the things that I think us and all of our partners are really invested in," she said.

Thank you to Gulf Coast Media for covering the 3-D Printed Sediment Reef Project's expansion! This project will provide more beneficial use opportunities for Mobile Bay, as well as provide hard substrate for keystone species like oysters and shrimp to live on and around. To read the full article, visit the link below:

https://gulfcoastmedia.com/stories/3d-printed-reef-project-in-mobile-bay-expands-after-successful-pilot,334013 #//