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Suggest a Project - Kalamazoo River Hazardous Waste Site

Share Your Ideas

Do you have an idea for a specific restoration project in the Kalamazoo River watershed? The Natural Resource Trustees for the Kalamazoo River Superfund Site are interested in hearing from you. You can use the online portal below to provide the Trustees information about one or more projects you wish to have considered. 

You can view the Trustees’ project evaluation criteria in the 2016 Restoration Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (section 2.3). This page will be updated if there are any different criteria considered in the future. Other submission guidelines are listed below.

Restoration activities are complementary to cleanup, and will focus on restoring or enhancing ecological services in aquatic, riparian, and upland habitats. The Trustees’ goals are to restore and maintain the Kalamazoo River’s ecosystem similar to its structure and function before degradation by dams and pollution.

Your submission will be entered into our database and reviewed. Suggested projects will be evaluated by the Trustees for consideration in project-specific restoration plans that will be subject to public review and comment. 

After you’ve successfully submitted your information, you’ll receive a confirmation number. Please keep that number for your records. 

Attachments cannot be provided through the portal. If you would like to submit supplemental documents, please email them to kalamazooriver.nrda@noaa.gov. Be sure to reference your project’s name and confirmation number in your email. 

If you are having problems with the online portal, you may instead request a project idea submission form PDF by emailing kalamazooriver.nrda@noaa.gov. Once the form is completed, it can be sent to the same email address or mailed to:

  • NOAA Restoration Center
    RE: Kalamazoo River Project Solicitation ℅ Julie Sims
    4840 S. State Rd.
    Ann Arbor, MI  48108

View submitted projects that meet our posting guidelines.

More questions about the process? Read our FAQs.

Submission Guidelines

Please note that your project suggestion and any associated attachments may be posted online. The information you submit will be retained as part of the Administrative Record for the Natural Resources Damage Assessment. This is not a request for proposals for grant funding; this is a public solicitation of restoration project ideas. 

Many types of projects that benefit fish and wildlife of the Kalamazoo River watershed will be considered. These include, but are not limited to the following types:

  • Instream habitat restoration through adding natural structure and reducing channelization.

  • Stream bank restoration and increasing floodplain habitat areas.

  • Removing barriers to fish passage in streams from undersized culverts and dams.

  • Enhancing native plant species and controlling invasive species.

  • Preserving, enhancing, or restoring riparian and wetland habitats.

  • Restoring habitat that also benefits recreational uses like fishing, wildlife viewing, or others. 

Types of restoration that will not be considered include:  

  • Projects located outside of the Kalamazoo River watershed.  

  • Projects within the Kalamazoo River watershed that do not benefit injured resources.  

  • Projects that do not restore natural ecosystem processes (e.g., preferential use of hard armoring over soft engineering technology, which can limit riparian habitat, alter hydrologic and temperature regimes, affect sediment transport, and impact human use).  

  • Projects that are solely focused on recreational uses and do not include ecological benefits. 

  • Projects that are otherwise required by statute, regulation, court-order, or other regulatory requirements.

Your project suggestion–including your name and contact information, if included–may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us to withhold this information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Projects submissions will be screened in advance of being posted online. All projects and attachments will be reviewed based on the guidelines listed below and posted (or not) following that review. Project suggestions that contain unacceptable content will not be edited; those projects will simply not be posted.

Also, supporting documents, links, etc. are welcome as long as they are pertinent to the restoration project suggestion. However, the appearance of external links, advertisements, political opinions, or other comments do not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Please note that content will be screened and will NOT be posted if it:

  • Contains vulgar language or material, personal attacks of any kind, threats, obscenity, or offensive terms.

  • Promotes services or products (non-commercial links that are relevant to the comment are acceptable).

  • Is far off-topic (i.e., not within the scope of the NRDA).

  • Makes unsupported accusations.