NOAA Announces Regional Coastal Resiliency Grants
NOAA has announced two coastal resilience grant opportunities! Deadlines for both grant opportunities are in July 2015. Read below for details:
1) NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) has released a call for proposals for the new Regional Coastal Resilience Grants Program. The program will support regional approaches to build resilience of coastal regions, communities, and economic sectors to the negative impacts from extreme weather events, climate hazards, and changing ocean conditions. Eligible applicants include: nonprofit organizations, private entities, institutions of higher education, regional organizations, and local, state, and tribal governments. Each proposal may request between $500,000 to $1 million in federal funds. The deadline to submit a proposal is July 24, 2015. For more information, click here.
2) NOAA's Office of Habitat Conservation in the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has announced a Federal Funding Opportunity of up to $4 million for Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency Grants. The Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency grants will fund implementation of on-the-ground habitat restoration projects that directly builds resilience of coastal ecosystems and communities. The deadline to submit a proposal is July 2, 2015. For more information, click here.
For more information about these grants, contact CHRN members Jamie Mooney or Bobbak Talebi.
Ocean Shores Update
In response to the erosion caused by a severe storm in 1995 that threatened condominiums in Ocean Shores, a 850 foot rock sea wall was built to shield the condominiums but ultimately damaged the surrounding dunes. As a temporary measure, contractors installed long sandbags or geotubes on 700 feet of beach, that have lasted for over 15 years (http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/coast/erosion/oc_shores.html). During the December 2014 wind storm, large waves and high tides ripped open the geotubes, resulting in Ocean Shores Mayer Crystal Dingler declaring an emergency and appealing to the state for assistance (http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/ocean-shores-mayor-declares-emergency-after-erosio/njcgf/).
The City of Ocean Shores is concerned the condition at the southern end of the geotube has become critical, and will not adequately protect properties from a potential breaching of the dune and flooding during the next fall-winter season. On May 5, the City of Ocean Shores hosted a meeting with environmental consultants and state agency representatives to discuss potential short, medium and long-term emergency shoreline erosion protection measures including:
· Capturing sand using sand fences;
· Investigating the potential development of a geobag revetment;
· Emergency measure focused on beach nourishment;
· Beginning the process of implementing the strategy of jetty rehabilitation this fall.
A follow-up meeting has been scheduled in June to review plans and to develop a strategy. For more information about this project, please contact CHRN members Bobbak Talebi, Jamie Mooney or Jessie McGrath.
What Does Resilience Look Like?
Utilization of the buzzer-word "Resilience" has gained momentum within the field of emergency management, extreme weather, climate change adaptation, and coastal community development and management, especially in the last few years. In 2013, President Obama established a Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience to provide guidance in determining key actions the Federal Government can take to better support state, local, tribal and territorial leaders working to make their communities more resilient to climate change. But what does it mean to be resilient? What does being resilient look like? How do we measure it? There are numerous definitions and theories that have been and are currently being developed to answer these questions. But instead of analyzing theories, we can learn of the different efforts currently happening, especially at a local level. Below is a short list of articles released in the last month that illustrate some local strategies for community resilience.
Planning for earthquake and tsunami recovery:
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20150401/news/304019994/planning-in-progress-for-2016-quake-tsunami-exercise-in-clallam
Oregon working towards a program to make seismic upgrades easier to prepare for earthquakes
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/04/multnomah_county_to_begin_prog.html
Strategy for relocation of La Push:
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20150331/news/303319995/first-to-move-out-of-tsunami-flood-zone-in-lapush-will-be-school
Buy-Outs
Nature Conservancy purchases land for habitat protection:
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20150401/NEWS/150409999/nature-conservancy-buys-timberland-for-7-million-along-hoh-river
In Puget Sound, Federal, state, and county partners are implementing an innovative approach to accelerate conservation and resilience of natural resources and communities in coastal watersheds:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/3CD69AE6209812EB85257E2E00527EEE