Ecosystem Restoration

One of the primary missions of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is to improve and restore degraded ecosystem structure, function and dynamic processes to a more natural condition. Restoration is conducted through large-scale ecosystem projects and by employing system-wide watershed approaches to problem solving and management for smaller ecosystem restoration projects.

The New York and New Jersey Harbor Estuary, designated as an “Estuary of National Significance” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has suffered hundreds of years of urban development and extensive loss and degradation of natural habitats. These impacts have reduced the diversity, abundance, function and integrity of the multiple ecosystems that remain within the Estuary. Ecosystem restoration projects play a pivotal role in protecting endangered species, preserving shorelines affected by erosion and building new habitat for our region's wildlife. 

New York District, along with its partners and stakeholders are committed to restoring the Estuary with restoration projects that combine to restore ecosystem structure and processes, in a sustainable manner with the goal to create a “world-class harbor estuary.”