Coastal bays funding in jeopardy if National Estruary Program funds cut

by Dave Wilson (Wilson is the public outreach coordinator for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program.)

The Coastal Bays Program could face a $200,000 shortfall in funding next year if Congress approves the U.S. Senate’s cut of $5 million from the National Estuary Program.

With funds tight from a lengthy wartime occupation and struggling economy, cuts are understandable, but the uneven slashing of environmental programs should be cause for concern.

One of 28 National Estuary Programs, the Coastal Bays Program receives part of the annual $24.5 million Clean Water Act spending package for the country ’s estuaries. Unlike regulatory government agencies, the programs’ structure insures bottom-up planning by inserting developers, farmers, and recreational and commercial fishermen in the planning process to come up with common-sense management plans for each unique estuary. In the coastal bays, that plan was finished in 1999 and the tough part-- implementing it-- has so far proceeded accordingly. But with looming cuts, this progress could slow to a trickle.

In April, 39 members of the House and 26 in the Senate signed letters to congressional appropriations committees encouraging Congress to provide adequate funding for the National Estuary Program for FY 2004. These included Maryland Senators Paul Sarbanes, Barbara Mikulski, and Congressmen Wayne Gilchrest, and Chris Van Hollen, each of whom have been unyielding supporters of the program during their tenure. The programs could not have flourished without them.

This year the House has level-funded the National Estuary Program at $24.5 million, but the Senate has cut the program down to $19.5 million. The $5 million cut would reduce each estuary’s funding by about $200,000 and is especially egregious considering Congress authorized $35 million in the Estuaries and Clean Water Act of 2000. For the Coastal Bays Program, the constriction would seriously curtail efforts to restore and protect the estuary. Educational efforts such as boaters guides and size and creel brochures, and work in restoring wildlife habitat, preserving land, and curbing nutrient and chemical runoff, would be scaled down or eliminated. More than 42 percent of the continental U.S. shoreline lies within National Estuary Program (NEP) boundaries and 15 percent of all Americans live within them. These estuaries produce $4 trillion in total economic output annually, employ 39 million people, and provide $1.4 trillion in employee wages. Not only are the estuaries of the NEP economically productive, but they are also some of the most ecologically significant and diverse habitats in the country. The coastal bays watershed, for example, is considered an “internationally significant” migratory bird corridor by the United Nations. Despite its importance, this and other estuaries are under threat by many competing and increasing demands placed upon them.

The Estuary Program has also proven to be one of the most effective and efficient national environmental programs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that between 1987 and 2004, the NEPs will have preserved, restored or created nearly 719,000 acres of wildlife habitat. In the relatively diminutive coastal bays watershed, that number has reached nearly 11,000 acres in the past three years. Likewise with funding, leveraging dollars has been a staple of the programs. In 2002, the Coastal Bays Program, using its few hundred thousand dollars, brought in $7 million for environmental projects in the coastal bays watershed. Bigger carrots yield bigger horses.

Considering the colossal sums our country spends for other purposes, $24.5 million to protect some of our nation’s most treasured beauty is a modest plea... from sea to shining sea.