CRMC, South Coast project partners to receive Coastal America Award

May 28, 2009, WAKEFIELD –The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), along with its project partners, will receive recognition from Coastal America for work on the South Coast Habitat Restoration Project on Monday, June 8 at 10 a.m. at the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge in Charlestown, R.I.

Coastal America, launched in 1991 as a collaboration between federal, state and local governments and other groups to solve coastal problems, awarded the CRMC and its partners with the 2008 Coastal America Partnership Award for its work on the South Coast Habitat Restoration Project in early 2009.
Project sponsors include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the CRMC, with support from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management (DEM) the University of Rhode Island, the Salt Ponds Coalition, and the towns of South Kingstown, Charlestown and Westerly.

In 1952 the State widened and deepened the natural tidal inlet to Ninigret, Winnapaug and Quonochontaug Ponds, with stone jetties constructed along either side for navigation. The construction of the jetties created a natural funnel effect that deposited large amounts of sand from the ocean inside the ponds. As this continued to occur over the years, formerly plentiful eelgrass beds covering the pond bottom were buried. The habitat restoration team is being honored in particular for the work done on the portion of the project including Ninigret Pond.

The CRMC and its partners began work on the South Coast project in 1997. The habitat restoration portion of the project included restoring 40 acres of eelgrass habitat within Ninigret Pond, the largest of the project’s salt ponds. The tidal delta in the pond was dredged to create a favorable environment for regrowing eelgrass. With the help of federal funding secured by U.S. Senator Jack Reed, Army Corps also constructed a catchment basin in the breachway inlet in order to capture sediment coming in before it emptied into the pond. Sand that was dredged from the pond was pumped just offshore of the adjacent beaches, so that the natural wave movement would deposit the sand along the shoreline, away from the breachways. Monitoring shows that eelgrass has regenerated successfully in both the seeded eelgrass beds and areas that were allowed to grow back naturally. Eelgrass growth has exceeded project expectations, but so did the sedimentation rates within the pond. The catchment basin has already filled to capacity requiring maintenance dredging to ensure the health of the new, lush eelgrass meadows.

Directions to the wildlife refuge:

From points north: Take Route I-95 south to RI-Route 4/North Kingstown exit (exit 9 on the left). Follow Route 4 for 9.9 miles and take a slight right unto Tower Hill Road/US Route 1. Continue on Route 1 for 19.7 miles. You will see a blue sign saying “Tourist Information Next Left” and a green sign for Ninigret Park. Take that left for a U turn unto Route 1 north. Take the first right unto Old Post Road following signs for Tourist Information and Ninigret Park. Continue on Old Post Road for 0.4 miles and take the first right unto Park Lane at the entrance to Ninigret Park. The large pavilion is on the right.