In developing the Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP), the Management Conference of the MBNEP recognized early on that the management of natural resources is ultimately the management of human behaviors with respect to those resources. Their objective was to provide consistent, enforceable, regional land and water use management that ensures smart growth for sustainable development and decreases the negative impacts of growth-related activities on human health and safety, public access, and quality of life. To fulfill that objective, the CCMP addresses sustainable land use planning, reduction or mitigation of harmful impacts caused by hydrologic modification, and increasing public access to water resources.
 
Sustainable land use planning epitomizes the National Estuary Program process, in that it necessarily balances economic impacts important to all user groups with conservation of water quality and living resources and habitats. As tourism, industrial development, residential development, and recreation continue to grow, it becomes increasingly important to manage growth to minimize environmental impact and promote sustainability. Planning should include efforts to curb urban sprawl, promote wise land use, encourage re-development of existing structures, educate citizens, and coordinate all levels of government with regards to sustainable land use.

Several examples of past land and resource practices within the Mobile Bay Estuary have either fallen short of expectations or caused more harm than good through hydrologic modification. The "poster child" for this phenomenon is the Mobile Bay Causeway. Built in the late 1920s as a route across the bay necessary to sustain envisioned growth, it formed an unintended barrier between Mobile Bay and the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. Significant evidence suggests that the Causeway continues to negatively impact the water quality of the Mobile Bay Estuary by altering salinity, nutrient, sedimentation regimes. Dredging practices and flooding/ stormwater runoff resulting from increased impervious surface area are other examples of potentially negative hydrologic modification.

As the coastline has been developed, access to water resources has become insufficient to support the growing population. Without access to water resources, the public sense of ownership or connectivity to them is lost, along with a willingness to expend tax dollars towards beach restoration or maintenance. The process of managing a sustainable estuary depends upon a concerned and involved public.

If you would like to become involved with the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, please call (251) 431-6409 or e-mail us.