I ♥ Estuaries campaign - resources and logos available

This Valentine’s Day, we want show Congress and the Administration that there is lots of love for estuaries and that cuts break our heart. In order to demonstrate support for your reserve, NERRA is joining forces to celebrate Valentine’s Day through a joint, 3-day “I heart estuaries” campaign February 12-14.  For more information on the program and details on how you can help - please check out Resources and Documents Page.  You will also find links to the campaign logo.  

Colleague Nik Charov - President of Laudholm Trust created a logo of his own (see above) and is offering it to all.  The photo can be used as shown above or customized for your reserve by changing the estuary image in the background. This image and a photo shop version (for manipulation) can be found below and on the Resources and Documents Page.  No photo credit needed!

Niks kiss my estuary photo

Niks kiss my estuary photo - photo shop 

And check out Nik's post about the campaign on The Wrack: blog of the wells reserve & laudholm trust.  

FY13 Senate Appropriations -- early returns

We are pleased to report that the Senate Subcommittee and the full Appropriations Committee provided $22.3M for NERRS Operation!

Stay tuned for more to come on....

• Procurement, Acquisition, Construction (PAC)
• The Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) - this program was funded, specific amount to be announced

In attendance for the Senate subcommittee were the following members:

Democrats: Mikulski, Pryor, Lautenberg, Brown

Republicans: KBH, Shelby, Alexander, Johnson, Murkowski

NERRA will be sending out thank you emails to all Senate Appropriation Committee members and encourage anyone with Senators on Appropriations Committee to email a two or three sentence thank you note to the Senator's staff thanking them for their work as well as to the Senators for their NERRS program support (especially to those listed above because they were present for the mark).

It is extremely important that members know that folks back in the state are tracking on this. In addition, it is expected that there will be push back on members supporting budgets higher than the President's during the conference of the House and Senate bills.

Your emails help give Congressional members cover for supporting the $22.3M NERRS budget!

Thanks to all of you who have helped with letters of support!

Congressional Appropriation Hearings this week!

Appropriation hearings have been finalized today and are fast tracked for this week(!). Here is the schedule.

Tuesday 230 EST Senate Approps CJS Subcommittee bill mark-up

Thursday 930 EST House Approps CJS Subcommittee bill mark-up
Time to be Announced, expected Senate Full Approps Committee bill mark-up


See list below of Senators and Representatives on Sub and Full Committee who have reserves in their state. To help you can....

1) Email a note to staff reminding the senator of our support request and include FY13 primer found on Resources and Documents page or

2) Email a letter of support based on the template provided on Resources and Documents page.

The most important thing is to make contact -- even if you are out this week or unable to send an email before the subcommittees or full committee mark-ups, send an email after asking for their continued support during the future appropriations hearings by full house or senate and then by conference committee.

Senate CJS Appropriations Sub Comm

Mikulski-MD

Feinstein-CA

Lautenberg-NJ

Shelby-AL

Brown-OH

Baily Hutchinson-TX

Murkowski-AK

Reed-RI

Collins-ME

Graham--SC

Senate Appropriations Comm
Kohl--WI
Murray--WA
Cochran--MS

House Appropr Committee (no CJS subcommittee members per se)

Bonner-AL

Kingston-GA

Kaptur-OH

Farr-CA

Wolfe -VA

Schiff -CA (sub, no NERR)

Honda -CA (sub noNERR)

Spring Meeting Follow up and Resources

On Tuesday, April 3, we held the Friends and Foundation Spring Webinar Meeting. We are pleased that so many Friends could join us as well as several Managers! If you were unable to join us for this meeting - read on for more information on the meeting and stay tuned for another opportunity to meet coming up in May/June.

During the meeting we reviewed the current budget situation and discussed some ways to help make a difference in final funding for the NERRS program. We have posted several of the documents we viewed during the meeting on the Resources and Documents page. Here is what we posted...

Overview of funding and Review of the Budget Process - These two documents were used to show the budget relevant to previous years and shows a timeline for the funding process. There is still time to make a difference!

Postcard Examples - Creating postcards that can be filled out and sent in to Representatives may be another way to have voices from our communities heard. Thanks to Mission-Aransas NERR for sharing this idea and example with all of us. NERRA is considering ways to assist you with this effort. More on this to come....

Economic Information Workbook - Healthy estuaries contribute to the economic well-being of our communities. Estimates of some of these impacts were shared on a national level through the Primer. Use these spreadsheets to come up with economic information specific for your Reserve or state. Check out North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR's example to see how this can be used to show how your reserve impacts the local and regional economy.

Details on the President's Budget

Fellow Reserve Friends,

The last two months have proved to be more challenging than ever. The President released his budget last month and we learned that the NERRS program was cut by $2.7M to $19M for operations (note this amount is actually $3.3M less from what Congress appropriated in FY12 @ $22.3M). The Construction and Acquisition money was completely eliminated.

The most troubling part of this proposed cut is that the President and NOAA have indicated that the funding cuts mean that the program should: “end the NERRS Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which currently supports 1-2 Ph.D. or master's students at every reserve and decrease the federal share of the funding to each of the 28 reserves across the U.S.”

As some of you may know the NERRA Board meeting was held in Washington, DC on February 27^th and the majority of our Board Members conducted meetings with members from their congressional delegation. (The Board missed the presence and input of Kay Reinhart, FFN representative!) The NERRA appropriations request is on our website for you to download as well as national program economic information.

We have a template letter we will be posting here in the next couple of days. In the meantime, NERRA wrote up an impact analysis that explains how the program will be impacted IF the President’s budget were enacted by Congress. . .do remember that Congress ultimately passes the budget. The first round of budget hearings began last week and NERRA requested that Congressional members ask questions of NOAA as to why they are proposing cutting the program and funding for the states.

We hope you can join us later this month or in early April for our webinar (more information to follow). If you have questions or comments, as always, please email or call me.

May the force be with us all! -Rebecca

President's Budget: NERRS Program Reduced

The President's budget has been released and we are disappointed to announce that the NERRS program was reduced.

• Operations are at $19M
• Procurement, Acquisition, Construction (PAC) was zero-funded

It appears that the President is directing the reductions to come from program operations. This means the push at the congressional level - to educate on the importance of the program - will be essential in the coming months and year ahead. NERRA will continue to work with Senators and Congressional Representatives on Appropriations Committees and will be looking for support on these efforts.

In the words of NERRA President Dave Ruple "...The budget process is just beginning! Though the starting point may not be desirable, through the legislative budget process is where WE have an opportunity to make a difference and affect the final FY13 numbers."

President Signs FY12 Budget for NERRS!

The FY12 budget (which is the money going to each reserve starting July 1, 2012) has been passed!

The NERRS received the NERRA requested amounts of $22.3M for operations and $1.69M for contstruction and aquisition.

We are now starting to work on funding for FY13. Congress will begin hearings early in 2012 and the President will anounce his suggested funding levels in early Febraury.

Stay tuned. . .

(thanks, Kay, for the post and support!)

Rebecca Roth, Executive Director of NERRA will be presenting on the current budget situation at the 2011 Annual Meeting. Senate appropriations for FY12 are at $22.3M and House appropriations at $15.6M. The Presidents budget recommends $22.3M. Come join us for this session and hear more about why the Reserve System needs the support of their Friends groups and Foundations!