Dr. John Dindo and Lee Yokel have secured a NOAA Coastal Services Center grant for $790,000 to address the Implementation of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) Environmental Education Priorities and Actions. The funding application was written on behalf of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources who requested DISL prepare the application for the State of Alabama. Six GOMA grants were issued to the five U.S. Gulf states, each addressing a specific action of the Alliance.

What is so exciting about this NOAA CSC opportunity is that funding will specifically address environmental education. As long as appropriations hold, the grant is expected to repeat for up to three years. Working with ADCNR and the Mississippi Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, DISL hopes to issue contracts and competitive grants around the Gulf to recipients for concrete educational programs. The grant also contains a $120,000 project that will be jointly administered through the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Weeks Bay Foundation. The program will address specific coastal training program activities in all five U.S. Gulf states.

Left to right, Dr. John Dindo and Lee Yokel

With the release of the US Commission on Ocean Policy and the President's U.S. Ocean Plan, The Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) was initiated in 2004 by then Florida Governor Jeb Bush. GOMA is a regional collaborative among federal, state, and other interests to address shared issues of coastal ecosystems. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as well as DISL have played a key role in the development of environmental education actions that are being addressed Gulf wide. In March of 2006, all five Gulf of Mexico Governors signed the Governors' Action Plan for a Healthy and Resilient Coast. The Action Plan identified five major issues that need to be addressed. These included:

• Water Quality for Healthy Beaches and Shellfish Beds
• Wetland and Coastal Conservation and Restoration
• Identification and Characterization of Gulf Habitats
• Reducing Nutrient Inputs to Coastal Ecosystems
• Environmental Education

Each U.S. Gulf state took leadership of an issue, Alabama championing environmental education. Issues within the thematic areas contain goals, major actions, and identified partners with commitments to implement various sections of the plan. A sixth issue, Coastal Community Resiliency, was added in 2007. Working through a Steering Committee and volunteers around the Gulf, many of the initial 36-month actions are complete or well under way to completion. A second, five-year plan is currently in development.

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