U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

In the wake of Sandy’s destruction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received $167 million in federal funding to strengthen natural defenses and protect communities and wildlife along the Atlantic Coast from future storms.

USFWS Highlighted Projects of 2016

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announces a new effort to measure effects and benefits of Hurricane Sandy-funded projects across the Atlantic Coast.

Connecting partners to reconnect streams in the Northeast A collaborative effort supported by federal funding for Hurricane Sandy resilience provides resources for partners across the Northeast to identify and prioritize repairs, upgrades, and replacements to bridges and culverts that threaten human safety and wildlife movement during extreme storms.

A $1.5 million region-wide science project is helping scientists and resource managers understand the effects of Hurricane Sandy on tidal marshes in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia -- and the wildlife they support -- to inform conservation investments and actions.

A $794,000 dam removal project has restored natural river flow in Stonington, Conn. and Westerly, R.I., improving flood control, restoring habitat for fish and wildlife and opening up several dozen miles of  fish passage in the Pawcatuck River for the first time in nearly 250 years.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and partners have restored five beaches along the shoreline of Delaware Bay in Cape May County, New Jersey, including Kimbles Beach, Reeds Beach, Moores Beach, Cooks Beach and Pierces Point. More than 800 tons of debris, including chunks of asphalt and bricks, concrete pipes, slabs and pilings were cleared from 1.5 miles of affected beach area. Contractors brought in more than 45,000 tons of locally-mined sand to replace the 2-3 feet of original beach lost to storm surge and erosion after the storm.

A $9 million restoration project to construct 20,950 feet of living shoreline protects marshes at Fog Point, a coastal section of Maryland

A $38 million marsh restoration project to build storm and sea-level rise resilience into the natural landscape is under way at Delaware’s Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. The project is repairing breached marshes and reconstructing severely damaged shoreline, including critical dune restoration, to sustain wildlife and protect local communities.

A $13 million debris and tree removal project at E. B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey cleaned up more than 32,000 acres of saltmarsh and coastal habitat at locations near or within the refuge boundaries. Restoration of wildlife habitat will follow the debris removal.