Watershed Management Lab

Collaborative Estuary Management

Collaborative nonregulatory programs can play an important role in sustaining natural resources and communities that depend on them. With project collaborators at the University of West Florida, we have been working with the Pensacola and Perdido Bay Estuary Program, the Choctawhatchee Bay Estuary Program, and the St. Andrew and St.Joseph Bay Estuary Program on developing the scientific foundation to frame and achieve their long-term goals.

Estuaries are complex ecosystems and their health is influenced by several factors. We worked with stakeholder groups to develop conceptual models characterizing the main stressors that influence indicators of estuarine health, such as seagrass.

We have been using the program Mural as a mechanism to share ideas, identify relationships, and prioritize actions for supporting estuaries and surrounding communities.