Restore America' Estuaries (RAE) and its alliance members have been working since 1996 to restore our nation's critical coastal areas and bring them back to life. Through its Community-based Restoration Program (CRP), RAE joins with government agencies, corporations, civic organizations, scientists, and local volunteers on restoration projects with real impacts. Among our aims are the return of abundant fisheries, strong local economies, and shorelines that are resilient to storms and flooding. RAE's CRP has funded more than 570 local restoration projects throughout the United States, achieves tangible results, gets people involved in their communities, and gives them a lifelong passion for restoring our coasts. The following National Sponsors are helping us make a tangible difference in America's communities. Their investment and support are translating into successful restoration projects throughout the country.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Restoration Center

Restore America's Estuaries has a long-standing partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA's Restoration Center is our leading national partner, sponsoring restoration projects on the East, West, and Gulf coasts through our eleven member organizations. Restore America's Estuaries and NOAA have just completed two very successful multi-year partnerships restoring thousands of acres of habitat and involving tens of thousands of volunteers.

Cheniere Energy, Inc.

In 2012, the RAE-Cheniere partnership is supporting RAE’s national community-based restoration program, with direct support to projects in coastal Texas and Louisiana. In southeast Texas, the RAE-Cheniere partnership is support the Galveston Bay Foundation’s Shipe Woods Habitat Protection and Marsh Restoration project, helping protect a 14-acre wooded conservation property adjacent to Trinity Bay in Chambers County from continued erosion and to re-establish fringing marsh habitat along its shoreline. Local community volunteers will be engaged in planting native trees on the Shipe Woods conservation property and smooth cordgrass along the property’s shoreline after construction of the breakwater is complete.

In southeast Louisiana, the RAE-Cheniere partnership will be supporting a floating marsh restoration project located in the Barataria Preserve, a unit of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. The restoration project will help to restore a section of degraded floating freshwater marsh within the park. The floating marshes within the Barataria Preserve are the only floating marshes within the U.S. National Park system and are one of only four large estuarine floating marsh systems in the world. Volunteers will be engaged in helping to build and place “marsh pillows” in the coastal marsh.

Cheniere Energy, Inc. has been a proud national partner with Restore America’s Estuaries since 2006, supporting both RAE’s biennial National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration, and its nationally renowned Community-based Restoration Program. Cheniere Energy, Inc. is a Houston-based energy company primarily engaged in LNG-related businesses. www.cheniere.com

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ConocoPhillips

In 2012, the RAE-ConocoPhillips partnership is supporting RAE’s 6^th National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration, in October 2012 in Tampa, Florida. More recently, ConocoPhillips supported RAE’s Tidal Wetlands Greenhouse Gas Offsets initiative, helping to develop a greenhouse gas offset methodology in the United States for tidal wetland restoration and protection.

As a national partner, ConocoPhillips has a longstanding partnership in supporting a number of RAE’s conservation initiatives dating back to 2006, including our nationally recognized Community-Based Restoration Program (Texas and Louisiana), and our biennial National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration.

ConocoPhillips is an international, integrated energy company. As of Dec. 31, 2010, it is the third-largest U.S. integrated energy company, based on market capitalization, as well as proved reserves and production of oil and natural gas, and the largest refiner in the United States. ConocoPhillips is the seventh-largest holder of proved reserves and the fourth-largest refiner worldwide, of nongovernment-controlled companies. www.conocophillips.com

EarthShare

Since 2004, Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) has been a national partner in good standing with EarthShare’s Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), #12070. The CFC helps to connect federal employees from across the country with non-profit charities that they care deeply about, and wish to periodically support through payroll contribution. Annually, RAE is supported by hundreds of federal employees nationally through EarthShare’s CFC.

For more information about EarthShare and their programs, visit www.earthshare.org.

LightHawk

LightHawk is a volunteer-based environmental aviation organization that provides donated flights to make the aerial perspective freely available to conservation groups. Founded in 1979, LightHawk illuminates environmental threats and empowers its conservation partners to protect land, water and wildlife in the United States, Mexico, Central America, and parts of Canada.

Over the past three decades, LightHawk’s corps of veteran, volunteer pilots has flown thousands of missions on behalf of environmental causes. LightHawk has helped researchers track the decline of imperiled coral reefs; conducted manatee censuses along the Florida coast; traced pollutant flows into rivers, lakes, and seashores; aided crocodile researchers; documented sea turtle nesting sites; mapped long-term changes to barrier islands; and tracked radio-collared jaguars.

LightHawk has worked in collaboration with Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) since 2007. In early 2011, the two formalized their partnership with a memorandum of understanding (MOU), supporting RAE, its eleven member groups, and their coastal restoration initiatives across the United States.

We are proud to have LightHawk as a prominent partnering sponsor of our biennial National Conference since 2008. In addition, LightHawk is a close partner with many of our member groups, annually supporting their coastal restoration work from the air.

For more on LightHawk, their pilots, and its mission, visit www.lighthawk.org.

Marathon Oil Corporation

In 2012, the partnership between RAE and Marathon Oil is supporting RAE’s national community-based restoration program, with direct support to a mangrove planting project in Port Fourchon, Louisiana. This area provides essential protection for Louisiana’s inland communities and was severely impacted by recent hurricanes and the 2010 oil spill. Lead by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, volunteers will plant thousands of mangrove trees which will assist in stabilizing marsh soils in the hopes of preventing future erosion. In addition, the project will also create wildlife habitat, increase species diversity and provide a seed source for natural regeneration of future mangroves. This project will occur on September 29th in conjunction with National Estuaries Day.

Marathon Oil has been a proud national partner with Restore America’s Estuaries since 2010, supporting RAE’s biennial National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration and its nationally renowned Community-based Restoration Program. Marathon Oil is Houston-based, independent international energy company engaged in exploration and production, oil sands mining and integrated gas.

For more information about Marathon Oil Corporation, www.marathonoil.com

National Marine Manufacturers Association

The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) in partnership with Restore America's Estuaries, is supporting RAE and its member groups in participating and exhibiting in regional and national boat shows across the country in 2011 and 2012. Manufacturers, boating enthusiasts, coastal restoration leaders and volunteers all have a stake in ensuring that our estuaries are protected and restored. This partnership is helping RAE and its member groups to share that message with the public. 

NMMA is the world's largest producer of boat shows and the leading association representing the recreational boating industry. NMMA member companies produce more than 80 percent of the boats, engines, trailers, accessories and gear used by boaters and anglers throughout the U.S. and Canada. The association is dedicated to industry growth through programs in public policy advocacy, market statistics and research, product quality assurance and promotion of the boating lifestyle.

For more information and a schedule of upcoming boat shows, visit www.nmma.org.

Seaworld Busch Gardens Conservation Fund

The SeaWorld Busch Gardens (SWBG) Conservation Fund has been partnering with Restore America's Estuaries (RAE) since 2006, supporting numerous community-based restoration projects with RAE's member organizations in Florida and Texas. In 2011 the SWBG Conservation Fund is helping to fund Tampa Bay Watch's (Florida) Great Bay Scallop Search, and the Galveston Bay Foundation's (Texas) Oyster Reef Restoration Program.  Employees from both Busch Gardens-Tampa and SeaWorld-San Antonio annually plan a weekend to participate in these restoration projects in their respective backyards.

The Great Bay Scallop Search in Tampa Bay is by far Tampa Bay Watch's most popular annual community event, promoting hands-on volunteer efforts, snorkeling in search of scallops in select areas and recording, and educating local families and residents about the estuary and its valuable resources.

The Galveston Bay Foundation's Oyster Reef Restoration program was initiated in 1993 and annually works with local waterfront property owners and other community volunteers to participate in "oyster gardening." Volunteers participate by hanging bags full of oyster shells from private and public piers in order to collect oyster larvae, and eventually dispersing the oyster shells across artificially constructed reef pads in Galveston Bay.

For more information about the SeaWorld Busch Gardens Conservation Fund follow this link: http://www.swbg-conservationfund.org/

Shell

Shell has been partnering nationally with Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) since 2004. In addition to supporting RAE’s biennial national conference, Shell has supported several national initiatives including Economics of Estuaries, and our nationally recognized Community-Based Restoration Program.

In 2011, Shell is supporting RAE’s Louisiana member group, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s (CRCL), and their community-based restoration project “10,000 Trees for Louisiana.” The goal of the project is to engage community volunteers in restoring more than 70 acres of coastal forests, educate and actively involve local communities across coastal Louisiana, and successfully develop an annual tree planting program.

Shell focuses on biodiversity initiatives with support to programs that restore critical ecosystems, address water, air quality research, preserve wetlands and sponsor wetlands initiatives. As part of Shell's commitment to environmental stewardship, they support projects that restore and protect critical ecosystems. In addition to restoration and preservation efforts, Shell funds research projects for threatened wildlife and/or habitats.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) a unit of the U.S. Department of the Interior, is dedicated to conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The USFWS-Coastal Program and Restore America's Estuaries (RAE) work together to advance the protection and restoration of coastal and estuarine habitats through strengthened conservation partnerships, information sharing, and planning for healthy and resilient coastal communities. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has supported RAE at each of its National Conferences on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration and is a lead sponsor for RAE's 5th National Conference in Galveston, Texas, November 13-17, 2010.