California Department of Fish and Wildlife

NRDA Program

Restored river bank Murre decoys and mirror boxes
Left: A picture of a creek with new plantings. Right: The restoration of Common Murres on Devil's Slide Rock in Pacifica, California included the use of
murre decoys and mirror boxes. The decoys were painted by school children.

Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) & Restoration

The DFG-OSPR NRDA Program has conducted NRDAs for a wide variety of pollution and other deleterious substance incidents, including oil spills affecting marine and non-marine waters, acid mine sites, hazardous material spills and stream sediment cases. The goal of the NRDA is to examine the natural resource injuries from oil spills or other pollution events, to quantify the injuries, and to both restore the injured resources and compensate the public for the lost interim ecological benefits and uses of those resources. NRDA claims have ranged from less than $1,000 to over $30 million throughout California. Since DFG-OSPR’s inception, over $215 million in restoration projects have been funded through NRDA settlements.

DFG-OSPR is one of the few state agencies in the country in which major pollution response authority and public trustee authority for wildlife and habitat are combined. This ensures that prevention and contingency planning as well as preparedness and response will provide the best achievable protection for California's natural resources.

Contact Information

Michael Anderson
Email: manderso@ospr.dfg.ca.gov
Phone: 916-324-9784

Page Last Updated: March 27, 2013