Communities Plan for Living Shorelines

More than 40 municipal staff, volunteers, and non-profit and state agency partners gathered at the Parker River Wildlife Refuge headquarters in May to explore ways to reduce community vulnerability in the Great Marsh.  Hosted by the National Wildlife Federation, the purpose of the North Shore Regional Workshop on Innovative Approaches to Reducing Community Vulnerability was to provide local planners, municipal officials, engaged citizens, and others with examples and strategies for using ecosystem-oriented approaches to increase coastal resiliency.

The workshop included a series of morning presentations (listed below) and an afternoon panel discussion where workshop attendees engaged with speakers and additional panel members on a variety of topics, including project designs, Massachusetts policy, financing, and permitting.

The six-person panel included Bhaskar Subramanian (MD DNR), Wendi Goldsmith (Sustainability Visions), Kathryn Glenn (MA CZM), Julia Knisel (MA CZM), Tim Purinton (MA DER), and Taj Schottland (NWF).

Featured presentations:

• Great Marsh Planning to Implementation: An overview of the existing efforts underway in the Great Marsh to assess community vulnerability and develop adaptation strategies, as well as a brief summary of the “implementation landscape” in the great marsh region. – Taj Schottland, NWF
• Living Shoreline Projects: The evolution of living shoreline designs in MD, lessons learned through case studies and best practices. – Bhaskar Subramanian, MD DNR
• Fixing the Resilience Gap: How to address the resilience gap through “integrating policy, natural systems, and finance to engineer sound solutions.” – Wendi Goldsmith, Sustainability Visions
• MA Coastal Policies Green Infrastructure: MA policies that govern the implementation of green infrastructure. – Kathryn Glenn, MA CZM

Funding for this workshop was provided by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management through their Coastal Community Resilience Grant Program