CRMC, officials celebrate Coastal America award for Lonsdale project

September 11, 2006, LINCOLN—The Lonsdale Marsh Restoration Project, which received funding from the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council through its Rhode Island Coastal and Estuary Habitat Restoration and Trust Fund in 2002, recently received an award from Coastal America. To honor the agencies involved in the project – including project sponsor R.I. Department of Environmental Management, the CRMC, the R.I. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – federal and state officials and local groups will gather on Monday, Sept. 11, 2006 at 11 a.m. at the former drive-in theater.

The project involved the restoration of 17 acres of habitat by removing a former drive-in in a heavily urbanized watershed. The project replaced the paved drive-in with 10 acres of riparian habitat and a seven-acre wetland made up of 3.6 acres of emergent and open water habitat and 3.4 acres of shrub and forested swamp. The restoration created a continuous wooded buffer along the Blackstone River, linking important habitats along the way. The RI Department of Transportation is also constructing a bike path adjacent to the site.

Coastal America is recognizing the efforts of the CRMC, through its Rhode Island Coastal and Estuary Habitat Restoration and Trust Fund, which provided $172,000 to the restoration project, as well as other state and federal agencies, for their collaboration. This project was one of the first to receive funding from the Trust Fund, and was granted much of the annual $250,000 budgeted for restoration projects.

Project partners included the RI Department of Environmental Management,the CRMC the Army Corps, the RI Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, the Blackstone/ Woonasquatucket American Heritage Rivers initiative and the Coastal America NERIT. The partnership contributed cost-sharing funds of $30,000.

“The CRMC is pleased to see that the funding has enabled such a beneficial project such as the Lonsdale project to be completed,” said CRMC Chairman Michael M. Tikoian. “Furthermore, the CRMC recognizes the cooperative effort among the RI Habitat Restoration Team members and other agencies and groups, which made this project possible. This project is a shining example of what the Trust Fund monies and federal, state and local groups can accomplish to improve Rhode Island.”
The Lonsdale project was one of several identified in that year by the Rhode Island Habitat Restoration Team, which presented to the Council a proposed list of funding needs for habitat restoration projects within Rhode Island.

The Trust Fund allocates $250,000 of the fees collected under the Oil Spill Response and Prevention Act (OSPAR) to potential habitat restoration projects. The Habitat Restoration Team, formed in 1998 through the collaborative efforts of the CRMC, DEM, and Save The Bay, acts as the technical advisory committee to CRMC. 

Coastal America is a national partnership of federal agencies, state and local governments and private organization, working together to protect, preserve and restore the nation’s coasts. Coastal America’s nine regional interagency teams identify site-specific, local coastal problems. Examples of these projects are: dam removal to restore or allow anadromous fish runs; wetland restoration using dredged material to restore degraded or destroyed habitats; whale-sighting alert system to protect endangered right whales from ship strikes; erosion controls in river banks and dune areas; and non-point source pollution control programs on farms to reduce nutrient runoff.

“The CRMC is pleased to be a part of the Coastal America partnership in an effort to solve coastal problems,” Tikoian said. “To also be recognized on a national scale reflects the exemplary partnership that worked so hard to complete this restoration project.”

Lonsdale site with old projection screen

Lonsdale, post-restoration in 2004