Estuaries are an important link in the chain of trash becoming marine debris. Plastic and other anthropogenic marine debris alter aquatic ecosystems, contaminating waterways and impacting water quality and habitat resilience. Across the NERRS, marine debris is an issue of concern for reserves and their surrounding communities. A System-wide survey conducted by the Marine Debris workgroup after the 2019 NERRS/NERRA Annual Meeting revealed an overwhelming desire for NERRS staff to work across sectors on the issue of marine debris and develop coordinated long-term monitoring and public messaging to promote understanding, behavior-change, and policy actions. To address this need, this project facilitated four knowledge transfer workshops across reserves and with the greater Debris Community of Practice (DCoP). These workshops elevated and articulated the NERRS’s niche in addressing marine debris and provided a forum to develop a Roadmap that contains resources for Reserves and DCoP members to address marine debris in individual estuaries.

In this webinar, the project team will introduce the Roadmap and describe the process of its development, explore with participants how it might be applied in Reserve and other specific contexts, and share insights on how the resource and community of practice can support reserves to make a meaningful impact on marine debris and better protect estuaries.