When oil spills foul our coasts, wildlife is not the only thing that suffers. The public can lose access to beaches, fishing, boating, and other recreational activities for a long time. Working with our partners, NOAA measures the impacts to wildlife, habitat, and humans. And, we ensure that those responsible for the pollution pay for projects to restore what was lost, which includes making up for lost days at the beach.

The week of April 4th we will be posting a series of stories regarding the public’s lost use of nature stemming from oil spills, hazardous waste discharges, and vessel groundings. We will cover:

• What are the benefits of natural resources and how do we measure them?
• How do we calculate our lost use of the environment after pollution strikes?
• How do tribes quantify and restore lost cultural uses of natural resources?
• How do we implement restoration projects to compensate the public for days they couldn’t go fishing, boating, hiking, swimming, and other activities relying on nature?