DOI Project #AC94A; Hurricane Sandy; Restore the Wreck Pond Inlet and Dune; Monmouth County, New Jersey.

This is an announcement for issuing a single source financial assistance award to American Littoral Society in Highlands, New Jersey. This announcement is for notification purposes only. The intent of the award is to restore the Wreck Pond Inlet and Dune in Sea Girt and Spring Lake in the Boroughs of Spring Lake and Sea Girt, Monmouth County, New Jersey. The proposed project would create a bypass box culvert (or similar connection) from the Wreck Pond emergency spillway to the Atlantic Ocean that would provide fish passage for migratory fish including alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), and American eel (Anguilla rostrata) designed to provide passage during spring and fall passage into Wreck Pond and upstream areas. This project will provide access to important spawning habitat for anadromous fish as well as improving coastal storm protection and improving tidal circulation in Wreck Pond. This project was previously vetted and approved for funding by the Department of the Interior. The authorization for this project is the Disaster Relief Appropriation Act of 2013, Public Law 113-2. Criteria for funding was based on the project¿s ability to yield the greatest return on investment by taking advantage of existing science and regional planning tools for resiliency and by working with states, cities, communities, and partners who contribute to the goals restoring and rebuilding national wildlife refuges and other federal public assets: and to increase resiliency and the capacity of coastal habitat and infrastructure and to withstand future storms and to minimize the damage incurred.