Environmental Windows
The Sudbury Group (New England Regional Dredging Team) is exploring how Environmental Windows (also known as Time of Year restrictions; TOY) are used in New England to manage impacts of dredging activities on coastal resources (fish, shellfish). This is a topic of concern to many members of the team. The National Dredging Team has also identified this topic as a priority and has asked regional teams to provide feedback to the national level.
NDT Meeting
We would encourage participants in the NDT/RDT meeting to take this survey and ask members of your RDT to take the survey as well. It would be particularly helpful to get both windows setters (State and Federal resource agencies) as well as window observers (Corps and Project Sponsors) to take the survey.
At the end of the survey you will be brought back to this page and can view the results of the survey thus far.
We used this survey to stimulate discussion at the NERDT meeting on 2/26/09. The results of the NERDT survey were presented in four separate files:
Powerpoint of the overall results grouped by strength of agreement
Environmental Windows Survey Text
Results of the questions grouped by topic in bar charts
Survey Summary Charts
Results of selected questions analyzed by the role of the respondent in Environmental Windows
Survey Summary Cross Tab Knowledge Charts
Results of the question: What are two things that you would want to change about Environmental Windows
Two Things to Change
The full results of the survey can be accessed here.
Survey Summary On Environmental Windows
As a result of the discussion of the survey results actions have been identified and will be forwarded to State Dredging Teams.
Environmental windows are those periods of the year when dredging and disposal activities may be carried out because regulators have determined that the adverse impacts associated with dredging and disposal can be reduced below critical thresholds during these periods. Environmental windows, therefore, are used as a management tool for reducing the potentially harmful impacts of dredging activities on aquatic resources. The first environmental windows were established more than 30 years ago and, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are applied today to more than 80 percent of all federal dredging projects. In 2001, the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board conducted a workshop to explore the decision-making process used to establish environmental windows, as well as the consistency of the windows-setting process.
NAS Report on Process for Setting Environmental WindowsBoston Harbor Plume Monitoring
Boston Harbor Plume Tracking Field Survey Report June 30-July13, 2008Boston Harbor Plume Tracking Field Survey Report September 9-September 12, 2008
Boston Harbor Plume Tracking Field Survey Report October 3, 2008
Boston Harbor Plume Tracking Field Survey Report October 27-October 29, 2008
At the NERDT's October 21, 2008 meeting, Tay Evans, Mike Johnson, and Ed O'Donnell gave presentations with case studies of environmental windows issues in New England and the team initiated a discussion that will be continued at future meetings.
- N. Tay Evans, MADMF
- Marine Fisheries Resource Recommendations: Time-of-Year Restrictions
- Mike Johnson, NMFS
- New Hampshire Examples of TOY Dredging Windows
- Ed O'Donnell, ACOE
- New Hampshire Examples of TOY Dredging Windows
