Department of the Interior Project # CHN76; Hurricane Sandy; construct two living shoreline projects and two acres of oyster reef on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, VA

This is an announcement for issuing a single source financial assistance award to The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The Department of the Interior Project # is CHN76. This announcement is for notification purposes only. The intent of the award is to construct two living shoreline projects and two acres of oyster reef on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) that will help restore and rebuild the NWR from impacts associated with Hurricane Sandy. This award is issued to provide financial assistance to collaboratively-developed priority projects in Hurricane Sandy disaster areas that will restore environmental resources, reduce flood hazards and increase coastal resiliency through collaborative efforts with local communities. The project will improve flood and coastal resiliency, create and restore ecosystem function, provide fish and wildlife habitat, reduce potential flood damage, and increase public safety. The Chincoteague NWR Living Shorelines/Living Reefs project has three goals: (1) to construct 900 linear feet of living shoreline composed of oyster castles, an alternative substrate utilized in oyster restoration, along the Tom¿s Cove section of the Beach Access Road at Chincoteague NWR, (2) to construct two acres of oyster reef composed of dredged fossil oyster shell in Tom¿s Cove offshore of the Beach Access Road, and (3) to construct 2150 linear feet of living shoreline along the low water mark across the cove along the Service Road at the North Wash Flats on Chincoteague NWR. The living shoreline at both sites will consist of two staggered rows of 7 foot long arrays of oyster castles separated by seven feet of bottom. Each array will be three feet wide and 17 inches high and each row of staggered arrays will be 3.5 feet apart. The oyster castles at the Tom¿s Cove site will be deployed from the adjacent causeway road via crane. The oyster castles utilized across the cove along the Service Road at the North Wash Flats will be staged at the refuge boat landing and deployed from small barges at the restoration site by the contractor. The 50,000 bushels of fossil shell utilized in the construction of the oyster reefs at Tom¿s Cove will be dredged from a State approved dredge site near Wreck Island, trucked to the Refuge, staged at the boat landing, and deployed by the contractor via traditional shell planting techniques from small barges at the restored reef sites.