On November 20, 2019, Audubon North Carolina announced that it will use nearly $200,000 in recently-awarded grant funding to lead marsh restoration and resilience planning on Currituck Sound, helping ensure a more resilient future for communities and birds in northeastern North Carolina.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded a $95,808 grant to Audubon for the project through the National Coastal Resilience Fund. The state awarded a separate $99,500 grant to Audubon from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund.
Combined, the grants will help facilitate a comprehensive marsh vulnerability assessment and allow Audubon to work with local partners and communities on restoration design at high priority marsh sites in Currituck Sound.
The goal of this planning and design project is to increase community resilience to flooding, sea level rise, storms, and other coastal challenges while safeguarding habitat for birds and other wildlife.
“The bird and human communities of Currituck Sound are on the front lines of coastal change in North Carolina. Audubon is deeply committed to the long-term health of the sound, and these grants help us take a significant step toward a more resilient future,” said Andrew Hutson, Audubon North Carolina executive director and National Audubon Society vice president.
“We thank NOAA, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and state and federal lawmakers for supporting Currituck Sound and funding coastal resilience planning for birds and coastal communities,” he added.
The grants will help facilitate a comprehensive marsh vulnerability assessment on Currituck Sound, an important wintering area for Tundra Swan and other waterfowl.
Following the destructive 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation created the National Coastal Resilience Fund in partnership with NOAA to strengthen our nation’s natural infrastructure which includes marshes, beach dunes, barrier islands and coral reefs.
Since 1996, North Carolina’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund has awarded grants to non-profit and governmental organizations to protect land for natural, historical and cultural benefit, limit encroachment on military installations, restore degraded streams, and develop and improve stormwater treatment technology.
Photo of migrating Tundra Swans in North Carolina by Jerry Black / Audubon Photography Awards.