From catastrophe emerges progress?
Disaster funding allocated to native plant research and restoration for climate-resilient ecosystems
November 10, 2015
New efforts use disaster funding to study and propagate local native plants to improve ecosystem health, storm protection and climate resilience along U.S. coasts.
Along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, universities and plant conservation groups have joined together to develop programs for restoration of native plant communities. The effort is funded by penalties incurred after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil platform disaster. The cooperative is comprised of five Mississippi-based organizations and businesses: Tidelands Nursery, Native Coastal Plants, 3Point Eco-Logical, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Mississippi State University.
This is similar to a program on the East Coast, where an association of botanical organizations, including NPCC Affiliates the New England Wildflower Society and the North Carolina Botanical Garden, have been granted funds to collect local native seed to restore coastal wetlands. These programs are being paid for in part by Federal funding arising from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
For more information on the Gulf Coast Deepwater Horizon projects see:
For more information on the East Coast projects see:
NOTE: the NPCC Website also offers information on the new Department of the Interior
National Seed Strategy which is expanding these types of local native plant-based restoration programs at the national level.
