In 2012, the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program partnered with State agencies, the cities of Daphne and Spanish Fort, Baldwin County, and other partners and to initiate implementation of the D'Olive Watershed Management Plan (WMP). The first project, installation of a step pool conveyance to restore a deeply incised tributary to Joe's Branch, won a Gulf Guardian Award for Partnerships. With significant funding secured in late 2013 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, supplemented with further NFWF funding in 2015, the MBNEP and partners sustained a coalition for restoring stormwater degraded streams across the three constituent watersheds, D'Olive Creek, Tiawasee Creek, and Joe's Branch, with the following objectives: Reduce upstream sediment inputs into the Lake Forest Lake/D'Olive Creek/ Tiawasee Creek systems, Reduce sediment loads carried into D'Olive Bay and the Mobile Bay estuary to protect downstream submerged aquatic vegetation fishery nursery areas, Remediate past effects of sediment loading, including the restoration of Lake Forest Lake, and Mitigate future impacts of development in the Watershed, where feasible. Panelists will discuss the value of: Coalition building across geopolitical boundaries in sustaining a multi-year restoration effort, which evolved over time Leveraging capacities to across coalition members to work with private property owners and provide project management for a city with limited capacity, Partners in leveraging resources to achieve de-listing of impaired stream segments, Changing regulations as a catalyst for restoration and environmental management, and Landscape-scale restoration and the importance of a plan. This WMP-driven restoration program resulted in the restoration of 11,833 linear feet of degraded streams, enhancement of 92 acres of floodplain and wetlands, annual load reductions of 5,272 tons of sediment delivered downstream, and the April 2020 de-listing of Joe's Branch from the State's 303(d) list of impaired waters.

In 2012, the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program partnered with State agencies, the cities of Daphne and Spanish Fort, Baldwin County, and other partners and to initiate implementation of the D'Olive Watershed Management Plan (WMP). The first project, installation of a step pool conveyance to restore a deeply incised tributary to Joe's Branch, won a Gulf Guardian Award for Partnerships. With significant funding secured in late 2013 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, supplemented with further NFWF funding in 2015, the MBNEP and partners sustained a coalition for restoring stormwater degraded streams across the three constituent watersheds, D'Olive Creek, Tiawasee Creek, and Joe's Branch, with the following objectives:

• Reduce upstream sediment inputs into the Lake Forest Lake/D'Olive Creek/ Tiawasee Creek systems,
• Reduce sediment loads carried into D'Olive Bay and the Mobile Bay estuary to protect downstream submerged aquatic vegetation fishery nursery areas,
• Remediate past effects of sediment loading, including the restoration of Lake Forest Lake, and
• Mitigate future impacts of development in the Watershed, where feasible.

Panelists will discuss the value of:

• Coalition building across geopolitical boundaries in sustaining a multi-year restoration effort, which evolved over time
• Leveraging capacities to across coalition members to work with private property owners and provide project management for a city with limited capacity,
• Partners in leveraging resources to achieve de-listing of impaired stream segments,
• Changing regulations as a catalyst for restoration and environmental management, and
• Landscape-scale restoration and the importance of a plan.

This WMP-driven restoration program resulted in the restoration of 11,833 linear feet of degraded streams, enhancement of 92 acres of floodplain and wetlands, annual load reductions of 5,272 tons of sediment delivered downstream, and the April 2020 de-listing of Joe's Branch from the State's 303(d) list of impaired waters.