A federal task force Monday released recommendations on how federal, state and local authorities can better work together for ocean and coastal planning.
The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force released the draft “Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning” report and started the public comment period, which ends Feb. 12. The report is available at http://whitehouse.gov/oceans.
Among the recommendations are the following:
- Fostering better communication, coordination and cooperation among agencies.
- Getting the public more involved in the planning process.
- Establishing a database where information can be shared.
The task force was formed by President Barack Obama in June and given the job of producing two reports — one about developing a national ocean, coastal and Great Lakes policy and another to come up with recommendations on ecosystem planning.
The policy recommendation report was released in September, said Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the task force and of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
The planning framework report released Monday lays out how regional planning across the country would be set up to gather science, data and planning information.
Sutley said regional planning would be a multiyear process to look at how to better manage the uses and ecosystem health of oceans and coasts and make them more sustainable. These regional plans would be completed by 2015, she said.
The process is not expected to create an added layer of bureaucracy, but instead it’s expected to create more efficient ways to work in coastal areas, said Laura Davis, associate deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior.
“We think it’s going to build on what we do today,” she said. “In fact, we don’t think there will be negative impacts on Department of the Interior responsible areas, including oil and gas.”
The report is the result of 38 roundtable discussions with interested parties and six regional public meetings — one of which was held Oct. 19 in New Orleans.
Paul Sandifer, senior science adviser to the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said thousands of public comments went into developing this draft.
“I encourage people across the country to read it and send in their comments,” he said.
