CSU Channel Islands professor’s research program receives grants to improve protection of California’s coasts
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. – Dr. Sean Anderson, a CSU Channel Islands professor of Environmental Science & Resource Management, received part of a $865,884 research grant to help improve and protect California's coastline.
Dr. Anderson's Improved Mitigation Frameworks program received $300,350 and will focus on aquatic environments of acute concern such as kelp and oyster beds, salt marshes and sandy beaches.
The CSU Council on Ocean Affairs, Science and Technology awarded $765,884 total through its State Science Information Needs Program to four CSU faculty members, over 26 students at three different CSU campuses as well as three outside collaborating institutions.
An additional $100,000 from the California Ocean Protection Council was also awarded to the Improved Mitigation Frameworks project specifically.
“The philosophy we’ve built up over the last 40 years is to first and foremost, avoid injury to the
coast,” Anderson said. “But sometimes, a road has to be expanded or there’s an oil spill or a
natural disaster like a wildfire. Ideally, you restore the lost resource with something identical or
very similar—an ‘in-kind’ mitigation. For example, you restore a wetland with another wetland.
But sometimes that’s not possible, in which case we are left with an ‘out-of-kind’ mitigation.”
The two-year research project aims to identify the best "out-of-kind" mitigation projects available for the dynamic California coast.
“If we’re on the east coast or we’re on the gulf coast, there are a gazillion wetlands because their
coastline is flat, but California’s wetlands are like little pearl necklaces,” Anderson explains. “We
have a baby coastline, so our wetlands are small and scattered along a mostly steep, cliff-filled
shoreline. If there is damage to Malibu Lagoon, for example, there aren’t nearby wetlands where
we can compensate by restoring another wetland.”
Dr. Anderson and co-researcher Dr. Richard Ambrose of UCLA will gather experts and student researchers from CSU and UC campuses and consult with state agencies as part of their research plans.
