CRMC executive director receives national Susan Snow-Cotter Award

June 16, 2010, WAKEFIELD – Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council Executive Director Grover J. Fugate was recently honored with The Susan Snow-Cotter Award for Excellence in Ocean and Coastal Resource Management from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Fugate has served as the executive director of CRMC for 24 years.

According to NOAA, the award – one of the Walter B. Jones Memorial Awards – is given to individuals who have “initiated innovated practices and brought positive change to the management of ocean or coastal resources at either the state or national level.” The criteria for this prestigious award include: effectiveness in advancing the goals of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) or National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA); effectiveness in increasing public awareness of ocean, estuarine and coastal issues; use of innovative approaches, techniques or programs to advance the goals of the CZMA or NMSA; and transferability of activity to other ocean or coastal resource management programs. The award is open to those who work with state coastal management programs, national estuarine research reserves and national marine sanctuaries.

The University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center, which nominated Fugate for the honor, credited him with being a “formidable leader in ensuring that our state’s coastal and ocean resources regulatory and planning processes are marked by innovative practice and positive change.

“In his nearly 25 years serving at the helm of the state’s coastal management regulatory agency, Grover has consistently employed his trademark skills – astute technical knowledge, commitment to public benefit and deft political navigation, as well as patience and humor – to foster the creation of regulatory codes and policies upon which are predicated numerous state activities that protect and manage ocean and coastal resources and further the goals of the Coastal Zone Management Act,” URI CRC said in its nomination.

The award also lauds Fugate for his work on the CRMC’s Special Area Management Plans (SAMPs), which are region-specific, tailor-made ecosystem-based management strategies that are consistent with the CRMC’s legislative mandate to preserve and restore ecological systems. The CRMC coordinates with local municipalities, as well as government agencies and community organizations, to prepare the SAMPs and implement them. Under the current executive director, the CRMC has developed six other SAMPs all over the state, including the Greenwich Bay SAMP.

The CRMC is currently leading a $7 million effort to develop the Ocean SAMP, which will provide a guidance document for the state, region and the nation in managing offshore renewable energy resources. As the country’s first application of the SAMP mechanism to an offshore marine ecosystem, Fugate, as project manager, is ensuring that the Ocean SAMP serves as a model for creating a single regulatory vehicle to manage both state and federal waters in this regard. The Ocean SAMP started in 2008, with research and public education taking place in 2009, and a policy document is slated for final CRMC adoption during the summer of 2010.

“Congratulations to our executive director,” said CRMC Chairman Michael M. Tikoian. “Grover has worked tirelessly on the Ocean SAMP in coordination with URI. Such collective accomplishments are a tribute to our state.”

Fugate received the award during a June 10 ceremony in Washington, D.C., where Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr., NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco and members of the coastal community presented the awards.