Current Environmental Issue SALT AND FRESH WATER ESTUARIES - - PDF document

Current Environmental Issue “SALT AND FRESH WATER ESTUARIES”

Estuaries are special places where ocean and river mingle to create a dynamic, diverse, and highly productive environment. Plants and animals thrive in this unique environment driven by sunlight and the daily tides. Humans, too, are drawn to the estuary to harvest food, travel on its waters, and claim the flat lands for the purposes of civilization. Salt water estuaries are semi-enclosed areas where sea water and freshwater mix. Freshwater estuaries are regions where lake and river waters mix. Estuaries are among the most productive ecosystems on earth and have been considered by some to be second only to the rainforests in productivity. They also are important as a first line of defence against the destructive power of the oceans caused by hurricanes, tropical storms, strong gales, high tides, and other natural disturbances. Salt and Fresh Water Estuaries Learning Objectives

• 1. Describe and classify different estuaries and explain the difference between a fresh and a salt estuary.
• 2. Compare and contrast the different fresh water and salt estuarine habitats.
• 3. Describe the unique features and signs of a healthy salt marsh and estuary.
• 4. Familiarize yourself with the historical and cultural importance of estuaries in Oregon
• 5. Compare and contrast reasons why salt and fresh water estuaries are important economically,

ecologically and socially.

• 6. Examine the anthropogenic and environmental impacts upon estuaries and the methods being used to

mitigate these impacts.

• 7. Discuss the merits of returning some or all of the estuary marsh environments to their original state

versus maintaining dykes and water controls systems that were installed to permit agriculture.

• 8. Identify and describe various fresh water and salt estuarine flowering plants, seaweeds and animals.
• 9. Explain how plants and animals have adapted to the physical and chemical features of a salt estuary.
• 10. Familiarize yourself with the federal and state laws and regulations for the protection of marine areas.
• 11. Describe the effects inland activities have on estuaries. Explain how the activities in the estuary may

possibly affect the inland waters?

Oregon Envirothon 2011- Current Environmental Issue Understanding the Purpose and Effects of Marine Protected Areas as an Ecosystem Management Tool

What is a Marine Protected Area? “Marine protected area” is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of approaches to U.S. place based conservation and management. The official federal definition of an MPA in Executive Order 13158 is: “any area of the marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state, tribal, territorial, or local laws

• r regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein.”

Specific operational criteria for several key terms within this broad definition (for example, “protection” and “lasting”) have been developed by the National MPA Center based on guidance from the MPA Federal Advisory Committee, governmental agencies, and the public. The criteria were published as part of the framework for developing the national MPA system, which was released in July 2006 and available for public comment for 145 days. In practical terms, marine protected areas are delineated areas in the oceans, estuaries, and coasts with a higher level of protection than prevails in the surrounding waters. MPAs are used extensively in the U.S. and abroad for a variety of conservation and management purposes. They span a range of habitats including areas in the open ocean, coastal areas, inter-tidal zone, estuaries, and Great Lakes waters. They vary widely in purpose, legal authorities, agencies and management approaches, level of protection, and restrictions on human uses. Faced with widespread declines in ocean health and a growing interest in place-based ecosystem management, many nations, including the United States, are establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) to conserve vital marine habitats and resources. Familiar examples of U.S. MPAs include national marine sanctuaries, national parks, wildlife refuges, many state parks and conservation areas, and a variety of fishery management closures. Over the past several decades, a variety of legal authorities and programs have been established at all levels of government resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of MPAs. More than 1,500 such federal and state/territory sites exist today. This complex assortment of different MPA types and purposes poses many challenges to policy-makers and stakeholders alike. Chief among these is terminology. Although MPAs have long been used for decades in the U.S. as a conservation and management tool, the nation still lacks straightforward and consistent language to accurately describe the many types of MPAs occurring in our waters and to understand their effects on ecosystems and the people that use them. For example, the official programmatic names of many U.S. MPAs (such as sanctuaries, parks, preserves, or natural areas) rarely reflect the area’s actual conservation purpose, allowable uses, or management approach. Similarly, the generic term “marine protected area” is frequently assumed in the policy arena to mean “no- take reserves,” when in fact, no-take MPAs are rare in the United States. This chronic confusion over MPA terms continues to unnecessarily complicate the critically important national dialogue about whether, when, and how to use this promising ecosystem management tool.

In response, the National Marine Protected Areas Center has developed a Classification System that provides agencies and stakeholders with a straightforward means to describe MPAs in purely functional terms using five objective characteristics common to most MPAs. Taken together, these characteristics influence the site’s effects on local ecosystems and human users, and thus its role in contributing to the conservation of healthy marine ecosystems. Among these five site characteristics, the first two – the site’s Conservation Focus and its Level of Protection – reflect many of the issues of greatest interest to stakeholders in local, regional, and national MPA dialogues. Please reference nomination packet and the “Framework for the National System of Marine Protected Areas” (included on the Oregon Envirothon References DVD) for detailed information on each of these 5 characteristics. 1) Conservation Focus (one or more)

• a. Natural Heritage
• b. Cultural Heritage
• c. Sustainable Production

2) Level of Protection Afforded (one attribute)

• a. Uniform Multiple-Use
• b. Zoned Multiple-Use
• c. Zoned with No-Take Area(s)
• d. No Take
• e. No Impact
• f. No Access

3) Permanence of Protection (one attribute)

• a. Permanent
• b. Conditional
• c. Temporary

4) Constancy of Protection (one attribute)

• a. Year-round
• b. Seasonal
• c. Rotating

5) Ecological Scale of Protection (one attribute)

• a. Ecosystem
• b. Focal Resource

For most MPAs in the U.S. and elsewhere, these five functional characteristics provide an accurate picture

• f why the site was established, what it is intended to protect, how it achieves that protection, and how it

may affect local ecosystems and local human uses. Combining elements of several domestic and international MPA classification schemes, this new approach to describing U.S. MPAs is intended to augment, but not replace official programmatic names and terms. It is designed to provide a neutral, intuitive, common language with which to describe, understand, and evaluate proposed and existing MPA sites, networks and systems.

Oregon Envirothon 2011 Oral Presentation Problem: “Nomination of a Marine Protected Area in Oregon”

The Marine Protected Area Center is presently soliciting nominations for marine resource areas to be included into the MPA system. Your Envirothon team is responsible for gathering the information necessary to produce a compelling presentation that will convince a panel of appointed reviewers to recommend your nomination for inclusion. The ground rules Your team must choose one Oregon estuary, or portion of an estuary, to submit for nomination. It may not be one of the five presently in the system; Siletz Bay, Nestucca Bay, Bandon Marsh, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve or Lewis and Clark National Historic Park. You must familiarize yourself with the criteria for inclusion, the nomination process and significance of the resources of your selected estuary. Be concise as to describing your estuary’s conservation focus and the level, permanence, constancy and ecological scale of protection that your team is recommending. You must justify your reasoning and cite all references used for justification. You will be supplied with a nomination packet. This is the actual packet used by the MPAS Center for the nomination process. There are three entry criteria for the national system (plus a fourth for cultural heritage). Sites that meet all the criteria, listed below, are eligible for the national system. 1) Meets the definition of an MPA as defined in the “Framework for the National System of Marine Protected Areas” (on DVD) 2) Has a management plan (can be site-specific or part of a broader programmatic management plan; must have goals and objectives and call for monitoring or evaluation of those goals and objectives) 3) Contributes to at least one priority conservation objective as listed in the Framework 4) Cultural heritage MPAs must also conform to criteria for the National Register for Historic Places. Many of Oregon’s estuaries have an adopted management plan which must be referenced. However, for this Envirothon exercise, if there is no adopted management plan for your selected estuary, your team must develop your own set of goals and objectives to reference during your presentation. Submitting your presentation Your presentation must be 10 minutes in length. You are not required to submit a presentation to compete in the Oregon Envirothon, however your team will receive a score of zero for the oral presentation section. Your presentation must be video recorded and submitted via tape or DVD to the Oregon Envirothon office by the deadline date. If you do not have the resources to video record your presentation, please contact your Oregon Envirothon Coordinator to make arrangements for our assistance. Computer use In the past Oregon Envirothon has allowed the use of computers to perform research and create PowerPoint

• presentations. This is being debated at the North American level as they are presently not allowed at the

Canon Envirothon. Your team is not required to use computer technology in the creation of your presentation and no penalty will be assessed if you do not.