Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program (ESRP) - Regional Pre-Design (Learning) Program Grant

The Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program (ESRP) aims to enhance the Puget Sound nearshore ecosystem by funding innovative projects that restore natural processes. Proposals should focus on ecosystem preservation and address degradation sources, ensuring results are broadly applicable across the region. Key objectives include improving river delta estuaries, coastal embayments, and beach quality while fostering understanding of effective restoration techniques. Successful projects will align with priority management measures established by the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project.

The mission of the Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program (ESRP) is to restore and protect the natural processes that create and sustain the Puget Sound nearshore ecosystem. Pre-Design (Learning) projects are one of four investment types managed through the ESRP. The four investment types include:

• Restoration and ProtectionLearning (Regional Pre-Design)Beach Restoration Small Grants, and
• Shore Friendly

The nearshore ecosystem of Puget Sound is a dynamic environment strongly shaped by physical and ecological processes. PSNERP guidance suggests that projects designed to protect and restore the ecosystem processes that shape and maintain nearshore structure will result in self-sustaining improvements in ecosystem functions, goods, and services, thereby justifying our capital investments in nearshore ecosystem projects.
The broad restoration objectives identified by PSNERP and used by ESRP include:
Restore the size and quality of large river delta estuaries and the nearshore processes deltas support.Restore the number and quality of coastal embayments.Restore the size and quality of beaches and bluffs.Increase understanding of natural process restoration to improve the effectiveness of program actions.
The most competitive ESRP learning proposals will be those that directly support planning, design or implementation of priority management measures (Clancy et al. 2009) and actions that will most fully address the source of degradation of these natural processes or that are focused on protection of intact areas. Strong proposals will also generate results that are applicable across multiple geographies within Puget Sound.