69622 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 219 / Monday, November 15, 2010 / Notices 

Norton Way (2 acres), Perimeter Road 

(33 acres), Mill Street (19 acres), Central 

Avenue (32 acres), and 300 South 

Tippecanoe Avenue at East Mill Street 

(88 acres); Site 5 (5 acres)—10501– 

10509 E. Valley Blvd. at Pacific Place, 

El Monte; Site 6 (50 acres)—1875 West 

Mission Boulevard, Pomona; Site 7 

(1 acre)—301 San Marino Avenue, 

between Broadway and Clary Avenues, 

San Gabriel; Site 8 (4 acres)—22941 

South Wilmington Avenue, Carson; Site 

9 (30 acres)—2560 East Philadelphia 

Street, Ontario; Site 10 (48 acres)— 

within Ontario Ridge Commerce Center 

at 3655 East Philadelphia Street, 2055 

South Haven Street and 3625 East 

Philadelphia Street, Ontario; Site 11 

(33 acres)—4100 E. Mission Boulevard, 

Ontario; Site 12 (32 acres)—1661 and 

1777 S. Vintage Ave. and 1670 

Champagne Ave., Ontario; Site 13 

(7 acres)—2530 S. Birch Street, Santa 

Ana; Site 14 (7 acres)—3000 and 31000 

Segerstrom Avenue, Santa Ana; Site 15 

(9 acres)—2900 and 2930 South Fairviw 

Street, Santa Ana; Site 16 (1 acre)—3630 

West Garry Avenue, Santa Ana; Site 17 

(6 acres)—1101 W. McKinley Avenue 

(buildings 4, 5, 7, 8, & 22), Pomona; and, 

Site 18 (2 acres)—Santa Ana and 

Junipero Serra Streets, San Gabriel. 

The grantee’s proposed service area 

under the ASF would include all of 

Orange County and portions of Los 

Angeles County and San Bernardino 

County, California, as described in the 

application. If approved, the grantee 

would be able to serve sites throughout 

the service area based on companies’ 

needs for FTZ designation. The 

proposed service area is within and 

adjacent to the Los Angeles/Long Beach 

Customs and Border Protection port of 

entry. 

The applicant is requesting authority 

to reorganize its existing zone project to 

include fourteen of the existing sites as 

‘‘magnet’’ sites (sites 1–8, 10, 14–18) and 

four of the existing sites as ‘‘usagedriven’’ sites (sites 9, 11–13). The ASF 

allows for the possible exemption of one 

magnet site from the ‘‘sunset’’ time limits 

that generally apply to sites under the 

ASF, and the applicant proposes that 

Site 2 be so exempted. The applicant is 

also requesting to expand the zone to 

include the following initial ‘‘usagedriven’’ sites: Proposed Site 19 (22.09 

acres)—VF Outdoor, Inc., 15614–15620 

and 15700 Shoemaker Avenue, Santa Fe 

Springs (Los Angeles County); Proposed 

Site 20 (22.32 acres)—Liberty Hardware, 

5555 Jurupa Street, Ontario (San 

Bernardino County); Proposed Site 21 

(45.91 acres)—Tireco, Inc., 10545 

Production Avenue, Fontana (San 

Bernardino County); Proposed Site 22 

(17.8 acres)—Schlosser Forge Company, 

11711 Arrow Route, Rancho Cucamonga 

(San Bernardino County); and Proposed 

Site 23 (15.7 acres)—Forged Metals Inc., 

10685 Beech Avenue, Fontana (San 

Bernardino County). Because the ASF 

only pertains to establishing or 

reorganizing a general-purpose zone, the 

application would have no impact on 

FTZ 50’s authorized subzones. 

In accordance with the Board’s 

regulations, Christopher Kemp of the 

FTZ Staff is designated examiner to 

evaluate and analyze the facts and 

information presented in the application 

and case record and to report findings 

and recommendations to the Board. 

Public comment is invited from 

interested parties. Submissions (original 

and 3 copies) shall be addressed to the 

Board’s Executive Secretary at the 

address below. The closing period for 

their receipt is January 14, 2011. 

Rebuttal comments in response to 

material submitted during the foregoing 

period may be submitted during the 

subsequent 15-day period to January 29, 

2011. 

A copy of the application will be 

available for public inspection at the 

Office of the Executive Secretary, 

Foreign-Trade Zones Board, Room 2111, 

U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 

Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, 

DC 20230–0002, and in the ‘‘Reading 

Room’’ section of the Board’s Web site, 

which is accessible via http:// 

www.trade.gov/ftz. For further 

information, contact Christopher Kemp 

at Christopher.Kemp@trade.gov or 

(202) 482–0862. 

Dated: November 8, 2010. 

Andrew McGilvray, 

Executive Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2010–28675 Filed 11–12–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XA024 

Request for Comments on the Draft 

Revision of the Estuary Habitat 

Restoration Strategy Prepared by the 

Estuary Habitat Restoration Council 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration, on behalf 

of the interagency Estuary Habitat 

Restoration Council, is soliciting 

comments on the draft revision of the 

‘‘Estuary Habitat Restoration Strategy.’’ 

DATES: Comments and information must 

be received by January 14, 2011. 

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Estuary 

Habitat Restoration Strategy, NOAA 

Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West 

Highway, Room 14730, Silver Spring, 

MD 20910. Electronic comments may be 

submitted by e-mail to 

estuaryrestorationact@noaa.gov or via 

an online form at http://www.era. 

noaa.gov. NOAA is not responsible for 

e-mail comments sent to addresses other 

than the one provided here. Comments 

should be in one of the following 

formats: Word or Word Perfect. The 

subject line for submission of comments 

should begin with ‘‘Estuary Habitat 

Restoration Strategy comments from 

[insert name of agency, organization, or 

individual].’’ Comments sent via e-mail, 

including all attachments, must not 

exceed a 10-megabyte file size. 

All comments received are a part of 

the public record and may be posted to 

http://www.era.noaa.gov without 

change. All Personal Identifying 

Information (for example, name, 

address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by 

the commenter may be publicly 

accessible. Do not submit Confidential 

Business Information or otherwise 

sensitive or protected information. A 

copy of the current strategy and 

authorizing legislation may be obtained 

by writing to the address specified 

above, telephoning the contact listed 

below (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT), or visiting the Internet at: 

http://www.era.noaa.gov or http:// 

www.usace.army.mil/CECW/ERA/ 

Pages/home.aspx. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jenni Wallace, NOAA Fisheries Service, 

Silver Spring, MD, 301–713–0174. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Estuary Restoration Act of 2000, title I 

of Public Law 106–457 as amended by 

Section 5017 of the Water Resources 

Development Act of 2007, Public Law 

110–114 (hereinafter referred to as ‘‘the 

Act’’), has four purposes: (1) Promotion 

of estuary habitat restoration through a 

coordinated Federal approach relying 

on common standards for monitoring 

and a common system for tracking 

restored acreage; (2) Development of a 

national strategy for creating and 

maintaining effective estuary habitat 

restoration partnerships among public 

agencies as well as through publicprivate partnerships; (3) Provision of 

Federal assistance through cooperative 

agreements for efficient financing of 

estuary habitat restoration projects; and 

(4) Development and enhancement of 

monitoring and research capabilities to 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 219 / Monday, November 15, 2010 / Notices 69623 

ensure that estuary habitat restoration 

efforts are based on sound scientific 

understanding and innovative 

technologies. 

The Estuary Habitat Restoration 

Council, consisting of representatives 

from the Department of the Army, 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration, Environmental 

Protection Agency, United States Fish 

and Wildlife Service, and Department of 

Agriculture, was established to oversee 

implementation of the Act. 

The Council was charged, among 

other things, with developing an estuary 

habitat restoration strategy designed to 

ensure a comprehensive approach to 

maximize benefits and foster 

coordination of Federal and non-Federal 

activities. Mandatory elements of the 

strategy are set forth in section 106(d) of 

the Act. The Council is also responsible 

for soliciting, reviewing and evaluating 

project proposals, and submitting a list 

of recommended proposals to the 

Secretary of the Army with 

recommendations on project priority for 

funding and implementation. All 

projects selected for implementation 

must be consistent with the Strategy. 

In December 2002 the Estuary Habitat 

Restoration Council published the Final 

Estuary Habitat Restoration Strategy (67 

FR 71942). Section 106(f) of the Act 

authorizes the Council to periodically 

review and update the estuary habitat 

restoration strategy. The Council has 

drafted a revised Strategy. The intent of 

this notice is to obtain comments on the 

draft revised strategy prepared by the 

Estuary Habitat Restoration Council in 

accordance with the requirements of 

Section 106(e)–(f) of the Act. After 

reviewing public comments on the draft, 

the Council intends to publish the 

adopted revised version of the Estuary 

Habitat Restoration Strategy in early 

2011. 

The 2002 Strategy was broader than 

site-specific restoration, and encouraged 

the Council to develop a comprehensive 

approach to maximize coordination of 

ongoing Federal and non-Federal 

estuary habitat restoration activities 

throughout the country. There are many 

elements from the 2002 Strategy that 

continue to be relevant to the Council’s 

efforts to effectively restore estuary 

restoration habitat. However, the 2002 

Strategy contained some goals that, 

while worthwhile, were not achievable 

due to staffing and funding constraints. 

The draft revised strategy, therefore, 

focuses the Council’s limited funding 

and resources on more attainable and 

realistic goals and identifies gaps that 

are not currently being filled by other 

Federal programs. In addition, the 

revised strategy identifies completed 

actions from the 2002 Strategy and 

discusses how the Council will build on 

these accomplishments in the future. 

In order to develop the draft revised 

Strategy, information was gathered from 

the five Federal agencies involved with 

the Act. In accordance with Section 

105(i) of the Act, the Council consulted 

with external stakeholders to obtain 

their advice. A stakeholder workshop 

was held in June 2010 and a request for 

public comments to guide the strategy 

revision process was published in the 

Federal Register on June 21, 2010 (75 

FR 34975). The public comment period 

was open for 30 days. Stakeholders were 

asked to provide their opinions about 

the direction of the Act and how the 

program can best work with Federal and 

non-Federal partners to achieve shared 

goals. 

During this stakeholder process, a 

variety of gaps were identified that the 

Council could direct resources to fill. 

However, two issues—climate change 

adaptation and socio-economic 

monitoring—were repeatedly raised. 

The Council addresses both of these 

issues in the draft revised Strategy. 

Draft Revised Estuary Habitat 

Restoration Strategy 

Introduction 

The Estuary Restoration Act (title I of 

Pub. L. 106–457) (Act) was created in 

2000 to establish a collaborative process 

among Federal agencies for addressing 

the pressures facing our Nation’s 

estuaries. In 2007, the Act was amended 

by Section 5017 of the Water Resources 

Development Act (Pub. L. 110–114). As 

part of the Act, an inter-agency Estuary 

Habitat Restoration Council (Council) 

was established to encourage the 

restoration of estuary habitat through 

more efficient project financing and 

enhanced coordination of Federal and 

non-Federal restoration programs, and 

for other purposes. The Council is also 

responsible for developing and revising 

from time-to-time an Estuary Habitat 

Restoration Strategy (Strategy) in 

accordance with Section 106 of the Act. 

This Strategy revises and supersedes the 

Final Estuary Habitat Restoration 

Strategy originally published in 2002 

(67 FR 71942). The Council consists of 

representatives from the Department of 

the Army—U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers (USACE), Department of 

Commerce—National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

the Environmental Protection Agency, 

the Department of the Interior—United 

States Fish and Wildlife Service 

(USFWS), and the Department of 

Agriculture—Natural Resources 

Conservation Service (NRCS). 

Consistent with 2002 Strategy, much 

of the Council’s work has involved 

soliciting and funding on-the-ground 

habitat restoration projects. The Council 

has also been actively engaged in 

developing mechanisms that track 

estuary habitat restoration activities 

throughout the country and improve 

monitoring and research capabilities to 

ensure that estuary habitat restoration 

efforts are based on sound scientific 

understanding and innovative 

technologies. 

This revised Strategy enhances the 

Council’s role in estuary habitat 

restoration, and establishes a focus that 

will maximize benefits to our Nation’s 

estuaries. Based upon stakeholder 

feedback, and in alignment with the 

Administration’s National Ocean Policy, 

the Council will direct resources toward 

restoration projects (and their 

monitoring) that will be able to adapt to 

the stressors associated with climate 

change. The Council will use climate 

adaptation as a priority-setting tool, 

while still addressing the other 

objectives and principles of the Strategy 

and Act. 

Vision Statement 

The primary objectives of this strategy 

are to: (1) Restore estuarine habitats in 

a manner that allows for adaptation to 

stressors associated with climate 

change, (2) build conservation 

partnerships, (3) provide incentives to 

partners to develop innovative 

restoration technology and (4) enhance 

monitoring capabilities. 

Overarching Principles of the Estuary 

Restoration Act Strategy 

The Council recognizes three 

overarching principles to efficiently 

implement the Act and to contribute to 

estuary habitat restoration efforts on a 

national scale. These principles include: 

supporting existing Federal programs 

and fostering partnerships between 

Federal and non-Federal partners; 

working at an ecosystem level; and 

working within existing regional 

governance structures and voluntary 

conservation frameworks actively 

engaged in estuary habitat restoration 

issues and supporting the 

Administration’s National Ocean Policy. 

To support this Strategy’s identified 

focus these three principles will be 

viewed through the lens of climate 

change adaptation. 

Public/Private Partnerships 

To efficiently restore and preserve our 

Nation’s estuarine habitat it is essential 

to enhance partnerships among 

government agencies, non-governmental 

entities, and private individuals. 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES
69624 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 219 / Monday, November 15, 2010 / Notices 

Integrating with public-private 

partnerships is a central theme of the 

Act and a critical part of this Strategy. 

Currently, hundreds of existing public/ 

private partnerships direct significant 

portions of their resources to the 

restoration of estuarine habitat 

throughout the United States. In 

addition, many of these ecosystem level 

partnerships currently incorporate 

climate change adaptation components 

into their own ongoing activities. 

Although too numerous to list, a few 

examples include the National Fish 

Habitat Action Plan, National Waterfowl 

Management Plan Joint Ventures, the 

National Estuary Program, the National 

Estuarine Research Reserve System, and 

Fish and Wildlife Service Landscape 

Conservation Cooperatives, as well as 

many projects implemented by both the 

NRCS and USACE and their partners. 

To maximize public-private 

partnerships, the Council will prioritize 

funding to projects that collaborate 

among public agencies and private 

organizations during the 

implementation of estuary restoration 

projects. 

Ecosystem Level Approach 

This Strategy recognizes that 

successful estuary restoration projects 

with multiple goals will improve 

ecosystem function. In its review of 

project proposals, the Council will 

support projects developed in an 

ecosystem context with multiple 

benefits and those that utilize natural 

processes to restore and maintain 

estuary habitat. Restoration projects 

should be designed using an ecosystem 

or watershed approach to establish a 

self-sustaining area that provides the 

structure and function necessary to 

support the many interrelated physical, 

biological, and chemical components of 

healthy estuarine habitats. 

Regional Ocean Governance and 

National Ocean Policy 

The Act encourages coordination 

among all levels of government in order 

to address issues of estuarine habitat 

loss and degradation. The Council 

recognizes that there are a variety of 

regional governance structures whose 

efforts contribute significantly to estuary 

restoration, including the Gulf of 

Mexico Alliance, Northeast Regional 

Ocean Council, West Coast Governor’s 

Agreement on Ocean Health, MidAtlantic Regional Council on the Ocean, 

and the South Atlantic Alliance. There 

are many existing Federal programs 

actively involved in the protection, 

restoration and science of estuaries that 

work with the regional governance 

structures. It is the goal of the Council 

to foster cooperation between 

government agencies at the Federal, 

State, and local levels, and that project 

proponents seeking funding from the 

Act collaborate on the ground with any 

existing local governance structures. In 

addition, the Council will reach out to 

non-ERA Federal agencies to encourage 

collaboration and support of the goals of 

the Act. 

This coordination is in accordance 

with the Act and complements the 

Administration’s National Ocean Policy, 

which includes a set of overarching 

guiding principles for management 

decisions and actions. The Council 

recognizes that the principles and 

objectives of this Strategy will aid the 

National Ocean Council in 

implementation of the Policy and 

Implementation Strategy. In particular, 

this Strategy supports Priority Objective 

5: Resiliency and Adaptation to Climate 

Change and Ocean Acidification and 

Priority Objective 6: Regional Ecosystem 

Protection and Restoration. 

Objectives of the Estuary Restoration 

Act Strategy 

The following paragraphs describe the 

objectives of this Strategy. 

Restore Estuarine Habitats in a Manner 

That Allows for Adaptation to Stressors 

Associated With Climate Change 

Coastal and marine habitats are 

already experiencing effects of climate 

change and will continue to be among 

the first and most obvious areas to suffer 

damage as changes continue to occur. 

The Council recognizes that by 

increasing and protecting the amount of 

available habitat, restoration projects 

will account for many environmental 

stressors on estuarine species and 

increase the habitats’ ability to adapt to 

changing climate conditions. Examples 

could include projects that increase the 

amount of available salt marsh habitat to 

buffer against sea level rise or a fish 

passage barrier removal project that 

increases available cool water habitat 

that will benefit anadromous fish. 

Build Conservation Partnerships 

In order to maximize public-private 

partnerships, the Council encourages 

collaboration among public agencies, 

private organizations, companies, and 

individuals (e.g., private landowners, 

hunters, birders, and fishermen) in 

restoration efforts. This connectivity 

encourages private organizations, 

companies, landowners and others to 

bring their resources (financial or inkind) to the table to assist in planning 

and implementing successful restoration 

projects. 

The Council particularly encourages 

the use of existing partnerships and 

planning entities to carry out this 

Strategy, including the regional ocean 

governance structures. 

Support Innovative Restoration 

Technology 

The Act provides a financial incentive 

for the use of innovative technology or 

approaches by increasing the Federal 

share of the cost for the incremental 

increase in project cost due to the use 

of innovative technology. The Council 

encourages project planners to develop 

innovative technology as they design 

restoration projects. Additionally, 

project planners are encouraged to 

develop unique and innovative 

technologies that are designed with 

climate change adaption in mind. The 

Council recognizes that there is less risk 

involved when funding restoration 

projects that utilize familiar techniques, 

since there is a higher degree of 

certainty that the project will result in 

the desired outcomes. However, the Act 

emphasizes the need to support projects 

that utilize innovative technology and, 

therefore, the Council will prioritize 

projects that propose untested 

techniques that appear to be based on 

scientifically-sound assumptions. The 

Council will consider technology 

‘‘innovative’’ if it involves a new 

process, technique, or material or uses 

existing processes, techniques, or 

materials in a new application or habitat 

type. 

Enhance Monitoring Capabilities 

Monitoring is important for a number 

of reasons. It allows practitioners to 

track success and determine which 

methodologies are successful, which are 

most cost effective, when adaptive 

management is required and when more 

information is required prior to 

implementing restoration. By closely 

tracking progress at the project level, 

restoration practitioners and 

policymakers can determine whether 

individual projects contribute to 

meeting the goals of estuary and 

regional restoration plans, and tally 

habitat acreage restored at a national 

scale. 

The Act recognizes the importance of 

monitoring to the success of any 

estuarine restoration program. It 

requires NOAA, in consultation with 

the Council, to establish monitoring 

requirements for projects funded under 

the Act. Those standards may be found 

at: http://www.era.noaa.gov/ 

information/monitor.html. They are 

based on NOAA’s two-volume ScienceBased Restoration Monitoring of Coastal 

Habitats, which provides standard data 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 219 / Monday, November 15, 2010 / Notices 69625 

formats for project monitoring, along 

with requirements for types of data 

collected and frequency of monitoring. 

The first volume (A Framework for 

Monitoring Plans Under the Estuaries 

and Clean Water Act of 2000) contains 

a framework for the creation of a 

monitoring plan. The second volume 

(Tools for Monitoring Coastal Habitats) 

contains detailed discussions of the 

habitats and their characteristics, along 

with a variety of additional information. 

These documents are available at the 

URL listed above. 

The Council will continue to promote 

monitoring of estuarine restoration 

projects with other agencies and when 

considering funding projects. In 

addition, the Council will prioritize 

projects with monitoring plans that 

measure the effectiveness of the climate 

change adaptation components of the 

project design. Project monitoring, 

however, must be scaled to the project’s 

scope, and level of risk. 

Mechanisms To Support the Estuary 

Restoration Act Strategy 

Solicitation Process 

The solicitation for estuarine habitat 

restoration projects incorporates 

elements that must be considered as 

described in Section 104(c) of the Act, 

where the Council determines which 

projects to recommend for funding. 

Other elements within the solicitation 

include an equitable geographic 

distribution of projects, a balance of 

large and small projects, and 

encouragement of demonstration of 

innovative technology. The solicitation 

for estuarine habitat restoration project 

proposals will describe more 

specifically the criteria that the Council 

will use to prioritize climate change 

adaptation projects, as well as other 

ranking criteria. 

Efficient Project Financing and 

Implementation 

As part of the Estuary Restoration Act, 

the Council was established to 

encourage the restoration of estuary 

habitat through more efficient project 

financing and implementation. The 

Council and its partners are developing 

processes to improve the efficiency at 

which the projects are implemented. 

Science of Restoration Monitoring 

In 2008 NOAA entered into a 

partnership with the National Estuarine 

Research Reserve Program to estimate 

the long-term success of restoration 

techniques. Grants were awarded to five 

National Estuarine Research Reserves 

(Wells, ME; Narragansett Bay, RI; 

Chesapeake Bay, VA; North Carolina; 

South Slough, OR) for this work. Project 

goals included: Establish reference 

transects for measuring vegetation, 

groundwater/tidal inundation, soil and 

pore water properties; monitor reference 

and restoration sites to determine 

restoration ‘‘success’’ at individual sites; 

determine restoration technique 

effectiveness; and assess best 

monitoring parameters to determine 

success. In 2011 a final report will 

articulate outcomes including reference 

site data that can be used by other 

restoration practitioners and an analysis 

of the success of past salt marsh 

restoration projects. 

Socio-Economic Monitoring 

Building on previous socio-economic 

efforts, NOAA has funded an external 

panel and three case studies to help 

determine the value and impact of 

coastal habitat restoration. These studies 

will produce the best methods and 

metrics to use in measuring the 

economics of restoration. NOAA, on 

behalf of the ERA, will continue to fund 

socio-economic monitoring studies to 

help NOAA, the four other ERA 

agencies, and our restoration partners 

consider systematic approaches for the 

collection of data to measure and 

monitor the economic outcomes of 

habitat restoration in the coastal zone. 

National Estuaries Restoration 

Inventory 

As required by the Act NOAA, in 

consultation with the Council, 

developed the National Estuaries 

Restoration Inventory (NERI) (https:// 

neri.noaa.gov/neri/), which maintains a 

database of information concerning 

estuarine habitat restoration projects 

carried out under the Act, as well as for 

other projects that meet the minimum 

monitoring requirements. The inventory 

contains information on project 

techniques, project completion, 

monitoring data, and other relevant 

information. This database is Internetaccessible to allow widespread 

dissemination and use of restoration 

project and monitoring data. The goal is 

to incorporate information on estuarine 

projects from multiple sources. NOAA 

will continue to work to incorporate 

estuarine restoration data from all the 

agencies represented on the Council, 

including EPA’s National Estuary 

Program On-line Reporting Tool 

(NEPORT), the FWS Habitat Information 

Tracking System (HabITS), and the 

Corps’ Civil Works Aquatic Ecosystem 

Restoration database. 

Trends 

Understanding trends for estuarine 

habitat is key to an effective and 

efficient restoration program. Trends 

data provide a chronological and 

geographic picture of change in habitat 

types, thereby helping managers to 

recognize ecological stability or stress. 

Under the auspices of the Act, two 

documents that measure estuarine 

habitat within the U.S. have been 

finalized in order to address the 

estimated historic losses, estimated 

current rate of loss, and extent of the 

threat of future loss or degradation of 

each type of estuary habitat. The ‘‘Status 

and Trends of Wetlands in the Coastal 

Watersheds of the Eastern United States, 

1998 to 2004’’ (http://www.fws.gov/

wetlands/_documents/gSandT/National

Reports/StatusTrendsWetlandsCoastal

WatershedsEasternUS1998to2004.pdf) 

was completed in 2008. In this 

document, NOAA and USFWS analyzed 

sample plots using digital highresolution imagery to identify wetlands 

and land use changes between 1998 and 

2004 in the coastal watersheds of the 

United States adjacent to the Atlantic 

Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Great Lakes. 

The ‘‘Habitat Change Analysis’’ (http:// 

www.era.noaa.gov/pdfs/final_habitat_

trends_report.pdf) was completed in 

2005. This document assesses the 

overall conditions of historic and recent 

degradation and loss of estuaryassociated ecosystems and focuses on 

the extent and condition of estuarine 

and Great Lakes wetlands in the 

continental United States, using two 

time frames, 1930–2004 and 1992–2004. 

Moving Forward 

Working with public/private partners 

and other interested stakeholders, the 

Council will review and refine this 

Strategy over time in an iterative 

process, as new information becomes 

available, as implementation of the 

National Ocean Policy is initiated, and 

as progress toward meeting the goals of 

the Act is evaluated. The Council will 

create an Action Plan that will articulate 

what it will do to move forward on the 

principles and objectives identified in 

this Strategy. The Council looks forward 

to addressing the challenges facing 

estuarine habitat restoration and serving 

as an effective vehicle through which 

five Federal agencies can cooperatively 

direct their resources. 

Dated: November 8, 2010. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2010–28696 Filed 11–12–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES