Seed-Based Restoration
In 2026, PREP has launched Great Bay’s first seed-based eelgrass restoration effort. This is the first restoration effort in the Great Bay Estuary that focuses on harvesting seeds, which help bolster existing meadows in Great Bay proper. Eelgrass acreage in the Great Bay Estuary has faced decades of decline, and in 2025 faced significant drop.
This work involves harvesting the reproductive part of an eelgrass shoot that flowers and produces seeds. Harvesting takes place at coastal donor beds near Fort Foster (Kittery, ME) and New Castle Beach (New Castle, NH). Harvesting is conducted by snorkel and SCUBA teams.
After collection, reproductive shoots are held in flowing seawater tanks at Jackson Estuarine Lab. The tubs replicate the coastal meadows where they were harvested. Here, seeds from the shoots will continue to mature. Eventually, they will separate from the shoot and settle at the bottom of the tanks. This process mimics how eelgrass seeds naturally release and settle on the seafloor. Once they’re at the bottom of the tank, our team will collect each seed, which is approximately the size of a grain of rice.
The seeds are cleaned and processed in September. In October, PREP willl visit select restoration sites, including in Great Bay proper, where we’ll seed existing meadows by tossing seeds and allowing them to settle to the seafloor.
Community Protections for Water Quality and Natural Resources
The Piscataqua Region Environmental Planning Assessment (PREPA) provides an analysis of regulatory and non-regulatory approaches to resource management in the 52 municipalities in the Piscataqua Region watershed. As part of the assessment, PREP makes recommendations for actions communities can take to improve water quality and natural resource protections. The lastest PREPA was released in 2026. To gather information, Municipal Master/Comprehensive Plans, zoning ordinances, subdivision and site plan review regulations, and other factors were reviewed.
PREP also provides funding through our PREPA Grants. These grants support any of the 52 cities and towns within the Piscataqua Region Watershed in both Maine and New Hampshire. The program helps our communities make big strides in protecting their natural resources and water quality, as well as in preparing for and adapting to recurring extreme weather.
Project topics often include: wetland and shoreland protection, floodplain management, land conservation, stormwater management, septic system management, climate resilience, and drinking water protections.
Learn more about the latest PREPA and the PREPA Grant Program
Collaboration to Support Estuary Health
The Municipal Alliance for Adaptive Management (MAAM) and PREP work continuously to coordinate monitoring efforts in the Great Bay Estuary in response to EPA Total Nitrogen General Permit; a groundbreaking and innovative watershed approach to managing pollutants affecting the health of the Great Bay Estuary.
MAAM members include New Hampshire municipalities in Newington, Milton, Exeter, Rollinsford and Epping. Additionally, South Berwick Maine Sewer District and the Berwick Maine Sewer District have joined MAAM in response to wastewater permit updates in Maine.
Learn more about the MAAM 2025 Joint Adaptive Management Plan.
Adapting Together: Project Builder and Climate Impact Grants
PREP's Adapting Together is made up of two programs that support Piscataqua Region Watershed communities connected to the Great Bay and Hampton-Seabrook Estuaries as they adapt to extreme heat and/or flooding. Addressing extreme heat and flooding not only provides shade but can cool to reduce thermal runoff and/or capture heavy rainfall before pollutants reach our estuaries' waterways.
Project Builder is a grant proposal incubator for climate resilience projects. It helps communities turn ideas into strong, fundable projects that address extreme heat and/or flooding.
Climate Impact Grants offer up to $25,000 in funding for community-led projects responding to extreme heat and/or flooding. While Project Builder helps participants shape and strengthen their ideas, Climate Impact Grants (and other funding opportunities identified through the program) help participants bring those ideas to life.
.A Free Stormwater Communications Toolkit for Your Community
PREP’s Stormwater toolkit is a free online resource to help communities in Maine, New Hampshire, and beyond talk about stormwater in clear and engaging ways. The toolkit includes 80+ ready-to-use communications assets—from social media posts and short videos to customizable text, graphics, and images—all designed to make stormwater education simple and effective. This toolkit helps residents understand what stormwater is, how it impacts our waters, and what we can do about it—while also celebrating the important work our cities and towns are already doing.
This toolkit is about turning up the simmer on stormwater education and an issue that impacts our entire watershed, including Great Bay and Hampton Seabrook Estuaries. Stormwater is water that’s already hit the ground—rain and snowmelt flowing over roads, parking lots, rooftops, and lawns. As it moves, it picks up pollution, causes flooding and erosion, and puts strain on our infrastructure, basements, and the rivers, lakes, and estuaries we care about. Whether you live along the coast or up near the lakes of the Piscataqua Watershed, stormwater is something that impacts us all.
Access and use PREP's Stormwater Toolkit
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Updating Pollutant Load Reductions for Nonstructural Best Management Practices
Urban stormwater is one of the fastest-growing sources of pollution in communities nationwide. In New Hampshire, local governments have raised concerns about meeting pollutant reduction goals for total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and total suspended solids (TSS). Street sweeping has historically received inconsistent pollutant removal credit under regulatory permits. Clean Sweep Project used an expert panel process to develop consensus-based recommendations to modify pollutant load reductions for street cleaning BMPs in ways supported by existing science and data. The report also includes recommendations for how credit could be received under regulatory permits issued by the NPDES Stormwater Permit Program.
Learn more about Clean Sweep.
Working with Partners to Implement Living Shorelines
The Great Bay Living Shorelines project aims to create new living shoreline projects in the Great Bay Estuary that protect salt marsh habitat and coastal communities from erosion, sea-level rise, and flooding. The project will work with Great Bay community stakeholders to identify four new living shoreline project sites, develop conceptual designs for the chosen sites, provide practical living shoreline design learning opportunities for professionals, and develop and share recommendations for future living shoreline projects in the Great Bay Estuary. Learn more.
