October 26–28, 2020 | Durham, NC

Abstracts for Session 2F: Monday 4:00–5:00

Session 2F
Integrating Climate into Conservation and Natural Resources Management, Part 2
LEXINGTON B

What's Going On  Coastal Habitat Restoration and Conservation Projects to Build Resilience

Bridget Lussier — NOAA/ERT
Dawn York — Cape Fear River Partnership and Moffat & Nichol

This presentation highlights the benefits of green infrastructure and taking a habitat conservation and restoration approach to building climate resilience. It discusses 1) the relative value and effectiveness of habitat restoration and conservation for this purpose, 2) the types of projects that suit this region, and 3) GIS tools to explore and choose sites for such projects.

The results are the work of numerous partners that assessed climate resilience in seven coastal watersheds. In North and South Carolina, assessments encompassed the Cape Fear and Charleston harbor watersheds. The assessment process identified threats to communities from flooding, tidal inundation, and other climate dynamics, and analyzed the threats at the watershed scale using GIS. Through a stakeholder engagement process, participants were asked for projects that would benefit both climate resilience and habitat, and in response, they submitted over 90 project concepts in this region. Proposed projects included conserving and restoring wetlands, floodplains, salt marshes, aquatic vegetation, oyster reefs, riparian corridors, and dunes; as well as constructing living shorelines, removing barriers to restore hydrology, creating barrier and bird nesting islands, and nourishing beaches. Many projects focused on reducing and preventing impacts from shoreline erosion, tidal inundation, and flooding.

The assessment and project proponents identified many benefits of the proposed projects to habitats, key species, and communities. These projects hold tremendous potential to increase climate resilience by boosting the capacity of the environment to withstand and recover from impacts. Funding and implementing the projects will accomplish multiple goals: reduce vulnerability to climate threats such as storms, flooding, drought, and extreme variability in precipitation and temperature; provide expanded ecosystem services, and increase and improve habitat for fish and wildlife, all of which benefit communities.

Sharing Lessons   What Role Can Lands Trusts Play in Climate Adaptation Planning?

Pamela Barber — Upstate Forever

Land trusts protect over a half million acres of land across the Carolinas. Through their partnerships with landowners, land trusts are uniquely positioned to foster implementation of climate resilience measures on these protected lands. How can land trusts incorporate climate science into their work? With assistance from the Land Trust Alliance and Open Space Institute, Upstate Forever developed an organizational action plan for climate resiliency. That methodology involved first 1) identifying pertinent data resources, 2) understanding climate predictive models, 3) assessing program fit, and 4) execution. This presentation will share that methodology and discuss challenges to implementation and opportunities for partnership with private, nonprofit and public sectors.

Sharing Lessons   Section 404 of the Clean Water Act as a Climate Resilience Tool

Patrick Moore — Open Space Institute
Nate Berry — Vice President, Open Space Institute
Maria Whitehead, Ph.D. — Senior Project Manager, Open Space Institute

OSI has protected more than 12,000 acres in SC, with more than 6,000 acres of that being funded by large industrial permit applicants such as Boeing, Mercedes, Palmetto Railways, and the SC Ports Authority. This wetland mitigation funding has protected the headwaters of the Wando River and other critically important parcels. The presentation will describe how the Clean Water Act is becoming one of the most effective land protection tools in the resilience toolbox.

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