Our Work
OUR VISION
Clean water and habitat to sustain all who live, work, and play in the Narragansett Bay Region.
OUR MISSION
We catalyze scientific inquiry and collective action to restore and protect our water quality, wildlife, and quality of life.
We are the only stakeholder-led organization pursuing place-based conservation across the three-state Narragansett Bay region.
Our work spans boundaries to provide independent convening, scientific data analysis, and watershed project funding. We support often under-funded pre-project steps, including studies, assessments, and engineering design. Guided by science and the shared will of the partnership, we pursue lasting solutions to the region’s inseparable environmental and social challenges.
Program
Achievements
Planning
We released the first watershed-based plan in 1992, called Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the Narragansett Bay.
Research
We have funded over 150 important scientific and policy studies since program inception. Find them in our Resource Library.
Tracking
We produced the first set of bay indicators in 2003, in a report titled Ecological Indicators for Narragansett Bay and Its Watersheds.
In 2017, we published 24 indicators selected by an expert committee in the 2017 State of Narragansett Bay and Its Watershed Report.
Funding
We brought ~$20 million in direct federal funding to the region since 1985 and leveraged $55 million from other sources since 2006.
Convening
We have convened thousands of stakeholders to build consensus around priority watershed and estuary issues since our founding.
Implementation
With our partners, over 7,500 acres of vital habitat in the Narragansett Bay region have been restored since 2006.
NBEP Fact Sheet
Download a web version of our fact sheet (2023) learn more about NBEP’s vital role in the region.
Download a high-quality print version of the NBEP fact sheet.
Bylaws
Open our governance document that provides a framework for the proper and effective operation of the program.
Program Evaluation
Download NBEP’s 2023 EPA Program Evaluation document covering the period October 1, 2017 - September 30, 2022.
Annual Workplans
Long-Term (FY2022 - FY2026) NBEP Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Workplan
FY2022-2023 NBEP Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Workplan (Amended October 2023)
Research Plan
Our research plan creates the Coastal Urban Watershed Research Collaborative, funds science needed for Vision 2034, guides our scientific program for the next decade.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead, Anthropologist