National Audubon Society, Washington

grant award: $94,697; year awarded: 2022

Sea level rise, including erosion, flooding and storm surge, will impact the shorelines and estuarine wetlands of the Puget Sound in Washington. Key systems for birds, salmon and the marine food web such as forage fish spawning beaches, intertidal eelgrass and mudflats, and estuarine emergent wetlands will be squeezed out by rising seas. Many homeowners along the Puget Sound may use coastal armoring as a solution, but these structures impact forage fish habitat due to construction on beach spawning areas and altered wave action that leads to erosion. While the Washington Shorelines Management Act requires counties to enact Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs), not all of these plans address sea level rise. Audubon Society has identified climate-adaptive policies and regulations and will advocate for their wider adoption in target counties where there are adaptation gaps in their SMPs. The Swinomish Tribe in Washington authored an award-winning climate adaptation plan and shoreline codes, which will be used as the model for this mainstreaming approach.