If you enjoy Baldwin County's natural amenities and want to continue to see them protected, rebuilt and enhanced, you have the opportunity to suggest a project to the state.

The State Lands Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is accepting project suggestions for activities and programs to be funded through the State of Alabama GoMESA Grant Program. Congress enacted GoMESA (Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act) in 2006, which gives monies from offshore oil and gas drilling for environmental projects to gulf coastal states, including Alabama.

Eligible projects include those that:

• Enhance coastal protection, including conservation, coastal restoration, hurricane protection and infrastructure directly affected by coastal wetland losses;

• Mitigate damage to fish, wildlife or natural resources;

• Implement a federally approved marine, coastal or comprehensive conservation management plan;

• Mitigate the impact of drilling activities through the funding of onshore infrastructure projects; or

• Support planning assistance and administrative costs of complying with GoMESA.

Last year, 10 projects in Baldwin County were awarded grants, combining for a total of $11.8 million and spanning the county, from environmental education in Orange Beach and wetlands acquisition in Loxley, from drainage improvements in Perdido Beach to the camp store in Meaher State Park.

Most recently, at the end of April, the first public boat ramp on the Bon Secour River opened to the public thanks to a co-investment from Baldwin County. $4.82 million came from GoMESA funds, $1.5 million from county GoMESA funds, and $2.6 million came from local Baldwin County funds to support the project, GCM previously reported.

HOW TO SUBMIT A PROJECT SUGGESTION

Project suggestions should include:

1. Project name
2. Submitter contact information (including email and phone number)
3. Project location
4. Project description
5. Justification (provide an explanation of how the project is consistent with one or more of the authorized uses of GoMESA funding listed above)
6. Estimated cost and detailed budget (if land acquisition proposal, state whether land cost estimate was derived from an existing appraisal or an alternative method)
7. Goals and objectives of the project
8. Project schedule that includes key milestones
9. Cost sharing/leveraging (describe cost sharing, in-kind services or leveraging of resources, if any. Please note that GoMESA funding cannot be used as non-federal source match for federal funding)
10. Relationship to other efforts (Describe relationship, if any, to other existing programs, plans, or projects.)

Questions regarding submission of a project suggestion can be emailed to gomesa@dcnr.alabama.gov.

Project suggestions can be submitted electronically by email to gomesa@dcnr.alabama.gov or by physical delivery (to the address below) through hand delivery, overnight courier or regular mail (however, due to recently experienced delays with regular mail, the alternative delivery methods are strongly suggested).

State Lands Division

c/o Jeremiah Kolb

31115 Five Rivers Blvd

Spanish Fort, AL 36527

Please note: Electronic submissions should be emailed in Portable Document Format (.pdf) to gomesa@dcnr.alabama.gov with "GoMESA Project Suggestion" in the subject line.

To ensure sufficient time for review, submit project suggestions by June 10 at 5 p.m. Project suggestions submitted after this deadline will be reviewed only as time permits. It shall be the sole responsibility of the submitting party to ensure actual receipt by the State Lands Division prior to this deadline.

The ADCNR makes no guarantee that any project suggestion will be implemented.