In the Gulf of Mexico, which contains more than half of the country’s wetlands, wetland loss is occurring at an alarming rate. Because wetlands provide a variety of critical ecosystem services, including coastal blue carbon (the ability of wetlands to sequester and store significant amounts of carbon and other greenhouse gases), researchers and managers are searching for ways to fund restoration and demonstrate the value of these wetlands to the public.

The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve leveraged approaches and lessons learned from the first Bringing Wetlands to Market project, which was developed by the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and supported by the NERRS Science Collaborative. Using the original project’s successful “Roadshow Dialogues” model, the Mission-Aransas Reserve team provided outreach in order to communicate blue carbon concepts and highlight relevant scientific research to blue carbon end users in this Science Transfer project.