Collection of estuary habitat
restoration project information (e.g., location, habitat type,
goals, status, monitoring information) will be undertaken in order
to populate a restoration project database mandated by the Estuary
Restoration Act of 2000. The database is intended to provide
information to improve restoration methods, provide the basis for
required reports to Congress, and track estuary habitat acreage
restored. Estuary habitat restoration project information will be
submitted by habitat restoration project managers through an
interactive Web site, and will be accessible to the public via
Internet for data queries and project reports.
The current estimate of burden
(103 hours annually) for the information collection renewal is 684
hours less than the previous burden estimate of 787 hours. This
estimated decrease is a result of a previous overestimate of the
burden, due to the following reasons: (1) as of March 2009, only
ten projects have been selected for funding through the Estuary
Restoration Act (ERA), two of which have been completed. (2) Very
few voluntary submissions have been provided, in part, because NOAA
has focused efforts on importing data for existing projects funded
by Federal agencies from those agencies internal tracking systems.
Most of the few projects that had been manually submitted for
inclusion in NERI already had project entries in the database. (3)
Currently, all of the data in the inventory (except the ERA-funded
project records) is imported from existing tracking systems. The
time required to input this data does not fit under our burden
hours since Federal staff are doing the primary data collection and
data entry.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.