Like most coastal ecosystems, our marshes are threatened. To ensure a healthy future for these critical marsh systems, the Coastal Federation is leading a partnership to develop the North Carolina Salt Marsh Action Plan (NC SMAP) that details a five-year strategy to protect, restore, and allow for the migration of salt marshes in coastal North Carolina so that their existing ecological, economic, and cultural functions are not degraded or lost.
To help achieve the overall goal to protect, restore, and facilitate the migration of salt marshes in North Carolina to minimize loss of function, benefits, and acreage through 2050 and beyond, the NC SMAP was further refined to create measurable five-year goals for each strategy. Spatial analysis and diverse expert input were leveraged to identify practical, evidence-based priority actions for each five-year goal that can be implemented across North Carolina through 2030 and beyond, which are detailed in the Roadmap to Implementation.