Recommended Management Measures

Water Quality: Identifies actions to reduce point and non-point source pollution and remediate past effects of environmental degradation, thereby reducing outgoing pollutant loads into Portersville Bay, Mississippi Sound, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Beaches and Shorelines: Assesses shoreline conditions and identifies strategic areas for shoreline stabilization and fishery enhancements.

Access: Characterizes existing opportunities for public access, recreation, and ecotourism and identifies potential sites to expand access to open spaces and waters within the watershed.

Fish and Wildlife: Identifies actions to reduce the incidence and impacts of invasive flora and fauna and improve habitats necessary to support healthy populations of fish and shellfish. Provides a strategy for conserving and restoring coastal habitat types; providing critical ecosystem services; and identified by the MBNEP’s Science Advisory Committee (SAC) as most threatened by anthropogenic stressors. These habitat types: freshwater wetlands; streams, rivers and riparian buffers; and intertidal marshes and flats, were classified as most stressed from dredging and filling, fragmentation, and sedimentation, all related to land use change.

Culture and Heritage: Characterizes customary uses of biological resources and identifies actions to preserve culture, heritage, and traditional ecological knowledge of the watershed.

Resiliency: Identifies vulnerabilities in the watershed from accelerated sea level rise, storm surge, temperature increases, and precipitation and improves watershed resiliency through adaptation strategies.