Client: National Park Service
Year Ended: 2025
Water & Air Research, Inc. (Water & Air) was awarded a five-year National Park Service delivery order to conduct seagrass habitat restoration and post-restoration monitoring at 10 vessel grounding injury sites along Arsenic Bank and Cross Bank in Everglades National Park. The project was performed in partnership with Tetra Tech, Inc. and Adventure Environmental, Inc., with Water & Air providing project management, field operations, and monitoring support under NPS oversight. Restoration planning and implementation were completed between August 2020 and November 2021, followed by an initial post-restoration monitoring event in November 2021.
Post-restoration monitoring continued over multiple years to evaluate seagrass and macroalgae conditions at restoration and reference sites. Monitoring was conducted in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, with field activities adapted as needed to account for environmental conditions, including a large-scale phytoplankton bloom that temporarily prevented monitoring at Arsenic Bank due to reduced water clarity. The final monitoring event was completed in May 2025 and documented conditions at both Cross Bank and Arsenic Bank, providing a long-term assessment of restoration performance and habitat recovery following vessel grounding impacts.