On September 13, 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the availability of a competitive federal funding opportunity (FFO) (www.csc.noaa.gov/funding) to support Regional Ocean Partnerships (ROPs) and to advance regional marine spatial planning approaches around the United States. The West Coast Governors’ Agreement on Ocean Health (WCGA) is the federally recognized ROP for the West Coast. The FFO provides the WCGA and other ROPs throughout the nation with special authority to coordinate the development of a proposal or proposals to compete for this funding. The WCGA is engaging tribal governments, state and federal agencies, scientists and technical experts, and stakeholders in a process to identify regional coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP) priorities and needs that will support a coordinated regional proposal from the WCGA to NOAA in response to the FFO. Please keep in mind that the FFO is a national competition between nine to ten ROPs around the country for a portion of $20 million dollars and that the funding has yet to be appropriated by Congress. To help develop the proposal, the WCGA will host one workshop in each West Coast state in November of 2010. The Washington workshop will be held: Tuesday, November 16, 2010, 10am to 4pm, Heritage Room at Capitol Lake, 604 Water Street Olympia, Washington 98501
Prior to the workshops, the WCGA will prepare a scoping document that will provide the foundation for workshop discussions. The document will include information regarding recommendations of the regional priorities identified in the 2008 West Coast Governors’ Ocean Action Plan and the implementation work plans of the WCGA Action Coordination Teams, established by the Governors to advise them ( http://westcoastoceans.gov/teams/). At the conclusion of the workshops, the WCGA will proceed with the following steps toward the submission of a proposal. The WCGA will:
1. Publish workshop findings for public review (a website will be made available);
2. Develop and release a revised version of the scoping document for public review that incorporates input from the workshops and other sources;
3. Host a public webinar to discuss the draft scoping document and development of the FFO proposal;
4. Provide a brief public comment period on the revised scoping document; and
5. Complete the final proposal and submit it to NOAA by the December 10, 2010, deadline.
Everyone is invited to attend these workshops. However, to ensure we have adequate space and resources at each workshop, please RSVP by emailing our WCGA Coordinator, Lisa DeBruyckere, at lisad@createstrat.com. Please provide your name, organization, specific workshop you are attending, and contact information. The timeline for us to engage with you is very short as the deadline for submission of a regional response is December 10, 2010. However, we are confident that the work that has been achieved to date by regional entities and the vision that exists in our region to address future ocean health challenges will result in the development of a strong West Coast regional response to the FFO.
