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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Coastal Habitat Conservation Program
Protecting and Restoring Coastal Habitat on Private Lands

The Coastal Program identifies important coastal resource problems and solutions, seeks partnerships to carry out on-the-ground conservation projects, and encourages public action in 15 of the nation's highest priority coastal areas. Since 1994, this program has restored 100,720 acres and protected 1,066,460 acres of coastal habitats. In addition, it has reopened 3,330 miles of coastal streams for anadromous fish passage and restored 825 miles of riparian (streamside) habitat.

Coastal Habitat Conservation Program
Our Nation's coasts provide important fish and wildlife habitat, far beyond their limited geographic extent. Coastal ecosystems comprise less than 10 percent of the Nation's land area, but support far greater proportions of our living resources. Specifically, coastal areas support a much higher percentage of the Nation's threatened and endangered species fishery resources, migratory songbirds, and migrating and wintering waterfowl.

Today, these species and their habitats face serious threats in coastal regions from human population growth and the development and disturbance that are often a consequence of growth. Population projections indicate that our coastlines will continue to receive the majority of the Nation's growth and development, promising to compound today's habitat losses.

As habitat is degraded, reduced or eliminated, plants and animals suffer population losses that can lead to the need for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Service's Coastal Program is working to avoid further species declines by enhancing the agency's efforts within the Nation's coastal areas and securing funding for conservation, including habitat restoration efforts.

The Coastal Program Focus
The Coastal Program focuses the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's efforts in bays, estuaries and watersheds around the U.S. coastline. The purpose of the Coastal Program is to conserve fish and wildlife and their habitats to support healthy coastal ecosystems. The Service provides funding through the program to 16 high-priority coastal ecosystems.
Since 1994, the Coastal Program and its partners have:
  • reopened 3,330 miles of coastal streams for anadromous fish passage
  • restored 77,870 acres of coastal wetlands
  • restored 22,850 acres of coastal upland habitat
  • restored 825 miles of riparian habitat
  • protected 1,066,460 acres of habitat through conservation easements
How Coastal Program Works
The Coastal Program integrates all Service activities in high priority coastal ecosystems to:
  • Identify the most important natural resource problems and solutions;
  • Influence the planning and decision-making processes of other agencies and organizations with the Service's living resource capabilities;
  • Implement solutions on-the-ground in partnership with others; and
  • Instill a stewardship ethic, and catalyze the public to help solve problems, change behaviors, and promote ecologically sound decisions.

Since the great majority of the Nation's coastal areas are in private hands, conservation of these ecologically important habitats is vital to protecting coastal natural resources. The key is to find solutions that ensure self-sustaining natural systems despite conflicting demands on our natural resources.

The Coastal Program provides incentives for voluntary protection of threatened, endangered and other species on private and public lands alike. The program's protection and restoration successes to date give hope that, through the cooperative efforts of many public and private partners, adequate coastal habitat for fish and wildlife will exist for future generations.

Coastal Program Locations
Albemarle/Pamlico Sounds, North Carolina » Fact sheet [in PDF]
Chesapeake Bay, Maryland/Virginia/Pennsylvania » Fact sheet [in PDF]
Cook Inlet Alaska » Fact sheet [in PDF]
Delaware Bay Fact sheet [in PDF]
Florida Gulf Coast Fact sheet [in PDF]
Galveston Bay/Texas Coast » Fact sheet [in PDF]
Great Lakes Fact sheet [in PDF]
Gulf of Maine » Fact sheet [in PDF]
Oregon Coast
Pacific Islands
Puget Sound, Washington Fact sheet [in PDF]
San Francisco Bay, California Fact sheet [in PDF]
South Carolina Coast Fact sheet [in PDF]
South Florida/Everglades Fact sheet[in PDF]
Southern California/San Diego Bay Fact sheet [in PDF]
Southern New England/New York Bight » Fact sheet [in PDF]

 

Featured Providers
Land Trusts and Conservation Associations
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Everett P. Ingalls

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LandVest

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USDA Programs
Emergency Watershed Protection Program

NRCS Funding Resources
New York Environmental Quality Incentives Program

State Funding & Technical Resources
Dakota County Farmland and Natural Area Program

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Funding & Technical Resources
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Coastal Program

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