Starting from the Bottom: A Localized Approach to Wetland Protection and What it Means for Coastal Community Resiliency

Rachel Baker is a student in the Masters of Coastal and Ocean Policy Program at UNCW, where she also graduated from in 2017 with a B.S. in marine biology. As an avid scuba diver with a passion for marine science education, Rachel worked teaching underwater research methods upon graduation until she read more into environmental policy and discovered a newfound passion for applying her natural sciences background to the world of policy. Rachel is now focused on research pertaining to coastal resiliency and wants to spend her career protecting the coastlines of her home state, North Carolina. 

Source: yaleclimateconnections.org

Coastal wetlands have increasingly faced difficulties in the establishment of adequate protection from rapid coastal development and urbanization. A phenomenon known as the “coastal squeeze” is occurring as sea levels rise and people are moving to coastal areas at a disproportionate rate, causing a need for more developments. In fact, even though fifty-two percent of people in the United States live in a county that drains to coastal wetland area (in a coastal watershed), coastal wetlands are disappearing at a rate six times faster than freshwater wetlands. 

Those who frequently visit the coast, and are familiar with coastal wetlands, may know them as the bogs and swamps they explore and bird watch from, estuaries they fish from, or salt marshes they swim in. Wetlands come in many shapes, sizes, and variations and host a variety of ecosystems. Although many people may recognize coastal wetlands as a hotspot for recreation, enjoying and experiencing nature, or even where their seafood comes from, there are other benefits from coastal wetlands that are significant to communities as a whole and yet often go unrecognized. 

Coastal wetlands play a major role in protecting our coastlines that are otherwise vulnerable to environmental and climate-related impacts, or in other words, they help us in establishing coastal community resiliency. Resiliency refers to “the capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from multi-hazard threats”. Environmental threats to coastal communities include natural erosion and seasonal storms. Threats related to climate change include increased precipitation and flooding, sea level rise, and increased high-frequency storms (hurricanes, tropical storms, and Nor’easters). 

Coastal wetlands reduce impacts from these threats by acting as a natural sponge for flood storage, filtering runoff from rain events, and acting as an energy buffer between coastal lands and storm surges. In fact, research shows that coastal wetlands are unique in these abilities, reducing damage from storms in ways that even open water or solid land can’t, because of their unique soil and hydrological characteristics.

Source: ncpressrelease.org

           

Historically, federal agencies have used a top down approach to coastal wetland protection, meaning that restrictions and regulations are set by the federal government and trickle down to affect state and local governments, where restrictions cannot sway from or be any stricter than the federal standards. This approach fosters unanswered questions and lack of clarity in local governments in that all wetlands are different- how they function in their local environment, their health and condition, and their value to their individual communities; yet local governments cannot cater their protection programs to reflect the needs of the individual communities. 

In addition, multiple controversies arise from federal programs themselves- from the changing of definitions regarding wetland boundaries in federal legislation, to presidential administration changes, to gaps and loopholes in federal laws. With the top-down approach, questions are left unanswered and wetlands are treated equally by law when science proves they shouldn’t be; even more, state and local governments lack leniency for protecting their own communities’ wetlands the way they see fit for local conditions. This being said, a bottom-up approach, or one stemming from local government regulations, has the potential to be more effective in protecting our wetlands to establish coastal community resiliency. 

In order to understand what variables should be included in an appropriate and effective bottom-up regulatory approach, multiple perspectives from key players in wetland protection and coastal development should be considered by local-level policy makers. After interviewing 11 professionals from a variety of agencies and organizations in North Carolina from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, I determined specific variables necessary to include in a framework of policy solutions for wetland management. 

First , I recommend prioritizing local restrictions so that local governments have the leniency to establish standards that are appropriate for the land use, development rate, hydrology, and wetland conditions in their area, with state and federal restrictions acting as a blanket of minimum protection over wetlands. Other variables that I make recommendations in include funding sources, data management, and education and outreach. For example:

• Incentive programs should be incorporated in local governments for wetland restoration and mitigation, with state governments providing funding support 
• Federal wetland data should be shared and organized, with local and state governments having capabilities to add data on their own wetland areas and conditions, resolving the underrepresentation and inaccuracies present in federal data for permitting
• Education and outreach programs should be provided from the state for local governments and the general public on more nature-based solutions and smart growth practices that local governments could incorporate into their municipal plans  

With these considerations, a balance of urban growth and wetland protection can be met and coastal communities have the potential to maintain resiliency as we look to the future.