(2) 2,400,000 people live within the Raritan 
Bay watershed. 
(3) The portion of the shoreline of Raritan Bay 
that is accessible to the general public (estimated at 
less than 50 percent of the total shoreline) is not 
adequate to serve the needs of the people living in 
the area. 
(4) Existing shoreline facilities are in many 
cases overburdened and under funded. 
(5) Large parcels of open space already in pub-
lic ownership are strained by the effort to balance 
the demand for recreation with the needs of sensitive 
natural resources. 
(6) Approximately 80 percent of the tidal 
marshes of Raritan Bay have been filled, and much 
of the remaining marshes have been ditched, dyked, 
or impounded, reducing the ecological value of the 
marshes. 
(7) Much of the remaining exemplary natural 
landscape is vulnerable to further development. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to estab-
lish the Raritan Bay Stewardship Initiative to identify, 
protect, and enhance sites within the Raritan Bay eco-
system with significant ecological, educational, open space, 
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public access, or recreational value through a bi-State net-
work of sites best exemplifying these values. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) 
ADAPTIVE
MANAGEMENT.—The 
term 
‘‘adaptive management’’ means a scientific proc-
ess— 
(A) for— 
(i) developing predictive models; 
(ii) making management policy deci-
sions based upon the model outputs; 
(iii) revising the management policies 
as data become available with which to 
evaluate the policies; and 
(iv) acknowledging uncertainty, com-
plexity, and variance in the spatial and 
temporal aspects of natural systems; and 
(B) that requires that management be 
viewed as experimental. 
(2) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency. 
(3) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.—The term ‘‘Advi-
sory Committee’’ means the Raritan Bay Steward-
ship Advisory Committee established by section 5(a). 
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(4) REGION.—The term ‘‘Region’’ means the 
Raritan Bay Stewardship Initiative Region estab-
lished by section 4(a). 
(5) STATES.—The term ‘‘States’’ means the 
States of New York and New Jersey. 
(6) STEWARDSHIP SITE.—The term ‘‘steward-
ship site’’ means a site that— 
(A) qualifies for identification by the Advi-
sory Committee under section 8; and 
(B) is an area of land or water or a com-
bination of land and water— 
(i) that is in the Region; and 
(ii) that is— 
(I) Federal, State, local, or tribal 
land or water; 
(II) land or water owned by a 
nonprofit organization; or 
(III) privately owned land or 
water. 
(7) SYSTEMATIC SITE SELECTION.—The term 
‘‘systematic site selection’’ means a process of select-
ing stewardship sites that— 
(A) has explicit goals, methods, and cri-
teria; 
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