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Watershed Management Bureau
Coastal Program
Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program
Background
As land becomes increasingly rare, Seacoast towns look to the federal Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) to fund local land protection efforts. CELCP, a tremendously competitive program where states vie for space on a national priority list, aims to protect coastal lands with significant ecological value. CELCP requires a one to one match from all applicants.
In 2002, Senator Judd Gregg, in coordination with state and federal land conservation experts, established CELCP "for the purpose of protecting important coastal and estuarine areas that have significant conservation, recreation, ecological, historical, or aesthetic values, or that are threatened by conversion from their natural or recreational state to other uses,” giving priority to lands that can be effectively managed and protected and that have significant ecological value.
In the past, CELCP funds had been exclusively allocated through the congressional appropriations process. However, the 2006 appropriations bill called for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create a national priority list for CELCP appropriations. In fall, 2005 and again in fall 2006, NOAA requested each state's coastal program to provide three project proposals at no more than $3 million apiece to compete on the national level for funding consideration.
Under CELCP legislation “the state lead agency will be responsible for: soliciting projects that are consistent with priorities outlined in the state’s plan, reviewing them for completeness, prioritizing them according to state criteria, and nominating projects to the national selection process.” Eligible proposals have to be either located in the coastal zone, which includes the 17 New Hampshire towns nearest to the coast, or the coastal watershed, which encompasses 42 New Hampshire towns.
Each year, upon receiving the proposals, NHCP staff ranks project proposals using the CELCP criteria and ranking system, taking into careful consideration the projects' ability to compete nationally. The CELCP goals and project criteria can be found in detail at the NOAA CELCP website. Then, NHCP staff hosts a public meeting to discuss the ranking and reach final consensus before sending proposals to NOAA.
Request for Proposals FFY 2009 Funding
This Request for Proposals (RFP) is intended to provide information to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the projects that are available for funding in New Hampshire’s coastal watershed for FFY 2009. As a result of this RFP, the New Hampshire Coastal Program will forward to NOAA three projects requesting no more than $3 million per project, which will be ranked in a national competition.
To be considered for funding, projects must be consistent with the draft NHCELCP Plan. This was the result of a partnership with the N.H. Estuaries Project, Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests, The Nature Conservancy, and the Strafford and Rockingham regional planning commissions. The Plan identified priority areas for CELCP funding within the coastal watershed and is in final review by NOAA.
The due date for all proposals is 4:00 p.m. on June 27, 2008. An electronic submittal in PDF format is preferred. You may mail or hand-deliver a CD or email your proposals to ted.diers@des.nh.gov. If you have questions about this RFP, please email ted.diers@des.nh.gov or call 603-271-7940.
Application Materials:
NHCELCP Request For Proposals FFY 2009 [pdf]
Appendix A, federal funding opportunity notice [pdf]
Appendix B, scope of work [doc]
Appendix C, project budget template [doc]
Appendix D, application checklist [rtf]
Draft New Hampshire CELCP Plan [pdf]
New Hampshire CELCP Plan Maps [pdf]
New Hampshire CELCP Plan
A CELCP Plan is required by NOAA to qualify states to nominate coastal land conservation projects to receive CELCP funding. The Plan identified priority areas for CELCP funding within the coastal watershed and is in final review by NOAA.
The NHCELCP Plan was developed with significant public input through a partnership of the Coastal Program, N.H. Estuaries Project, The Nature Conservancy, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Rockingham Planning Commission, and Strafford Regional Planning Commission. The Plan identifies 75 Conservation Focus Areas. These Conservation Focus Areas were identified through a systematic, state-of-the-art analysis of a wealth of natural resources data. Collectively, these areas comprise approximately 190,300 acres, or 36% of the watershed.
A Conservation Focus Area (CFA) is an area that is considered to be of exceptional significance for the protection of living resources and water quality in New Hampshire’s coastal watersheds. The NHCELCP Plan focuses on the CFAs because these areas have the greatest ecological and conservation significance. In general, focus areas occur in places where multiple important natural resource features co-occur to an extent that is significant from a watershed perspective. Occasionally, focus areas emerged that contained only one or two important features, because the features were considered truly irreplaceable (e.g., habitat for a globally rare species or an intact coastal salt marsh).
Each CFA is comprised of a Core Area. Some CFAs also include Supporting Natural Landscape. The Core Area is the contiguous geographic area that contains the primary natural features and habitat for which the CFA was identified. The Supporting Natural Landscape includes the surrounding area that helps to safeguard the Core Area while also providing habitat for many common species.
Project partners identified six categories of key natural resource features that best address living resources and water quality, which were collapsed into four map layers that make up the background data for the CFAs: forest ecosystems, freshwater systems, irreplaceable coastal and estuarine resources, and critical plant and wildlife habitat. The Land Conservation Plan for New Hampshire’s Coastal Watersheds describes the methodology for delineating the CFAs.
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