DURHAM, N.C. – A multi-year effort to reduce U.S. Marine Corps training facilities’ impact on ecologically vital wetlands, forests, waterways and barrier islands along North Carolina’s coast has been named a Project of the Year by the Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Devleopment Program (SERDP).

Two faculty members at 51’s Nicholas School of the Environment were among the project team members cited in the award announcement.

They are Patrick N. Halpin, Gabel Associate Professor of the Practice of Marine Geospatial Ecology, and Norman L. Christensen, research professor and founding dean.

Halpin and Christensen are part of a 13-person team that is working with the Marine Corps to develop ecosystem-based management tools that will enable the military to continue using the installations at Camp Lejeune for essential training and testing missions, while sustaining the  environmental health of these coastal areas.

You can read a full description of the team’s work at .