Final Coral Reef Restoration Plan and Environmental Impact Statement Released

Date: May 2, 2011
Contact: Amanda Bourque, 305-230-1144, x005

The National Park Service has released a Final Coral Reef Restoration Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (plan/EIS) for Biscayne National Park. Many vessel groundings occur annually in the park, causing injuries to submerged resources. The plan/EIS provides a systematic approach for addressing injuries to coral reefs caused by vessel groundings.

The NPS's preferred alternative in the plan/EIS, Restoration Using a Programmatic Approach, involves the use of a systematic approach to select suitable coral reef restoration actions from a "toolbox" containing viable restoration actions previously analyzed and judged suitable under specified conditions.

The plan/EIS is available on the web at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/bisc. After a required 30-day waiting period following release of the plan/EIS, the NPS will finalize its choice of alternative in a record of decision.