ALBANY, N.Y. — A draft plan released by state regulators on Tuesday will guide efforts to restore and protect the Hudson River Estuary from the Troy dam to the Tappan Zee Bridge.

The Department of Environmental Conservation is taking public comment on the plan until the end of October and is holding public information sessions Wednesday afternoon at Margaret Norrie State Park in Staatsburg and Sept. 24 at Columbia Greene Community College in Hudson.

The plan identifies four priority habitats for restoration: tidal wetlands, shallows, shorelines and tributaries. It says those habitats are important to the overall health of the ecosystem but have been degraded or destroyed on a large scale by development.

About half the estuary’s shoreline remains in a natural state, but the rest has been engineered with walls and other structures to protect property or support transportation, recreation or industrial activities.

Besides harming wildlife, loss of shoreline wetlands and shallows has made riverside communities more vulnerable to flooding by removing natural barriers that protect against weather extremes and rapid sea level rise, authorities said.

“Restoration of healthy habitats will provide benefits for fish, birds, turtles, crabs, mammals and invertebrate animals and to the residents of the Hudson River Valley and the state of New York,” DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said in a prepared statement.

Habitats in the estuary, which is tidal up to the federal dam at Troy, have been damaged since the early 1800s by navigational dredging, filling of wetlands, construction of the railroad along sensitive shoreline habitats and construction of dams in tributaries.

The habitat restoration plan is intended to be used by community groups, governments, scientists and conservation organizations.

Restoration actions identified in the plan include dam removal and culvert improvement in tributaries to promote fish passage; invasive-species control programs; preservation of existing shore land habitat; and use of environmentally sound methods of shoreline stabilization where necessary to protect property.