Funding will strengthen NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts initiative
A photo collage of some of the projects being recommended for funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law/Inflation Reduction Act and NOAA's Climate-Ready Coasts initiative. (Image credit: NOAA)
Today, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced that the Department of Commerce and NOAA have recommended $1.45 million for a project involving Michigan to make the state’s coast more resilient to climate change and other coastal hazards. The project encompasses the Lake Superior Basin region of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The awards are being made under the Biden Administration’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, a competitive, $575 million program funded through the nearly $6 billion total investment under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
“As part of President Biden’s commitment to combating the climate crisis, we are investing $575 million to help make sure America’s coastal communities are more resilient to the effects of climate change,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “As part of this historic investment in our nation’s climate resilience the Biden-Harris Administration is investing $1.45 million to help underserved communities in Michigan develop and implement new strategies to protect themselves from increased flooding and other impacts of climate change.”
Administered by the Department of Commerce and NOAA, the Climate-Ready Coasts initiative is focused on investing in high-impact projects that create climate solutions by storing carbon; building resilience to coastal hazards such as extreme weather events, pollution and marine debris; restoring coastal habitats that help wildlife and humans thrive; building the capacity of underserved communities and support community-driven restoration; and providing employment opportunities.
“Over the past decade, this area has seen, firsthand, the destructive impacts of climate change on lives and livelihoods,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “This funding will allow local governments and tribal communities in Michigan to address the problem of repetitive flooding, from identifying root causes to implementing long-lasting solutions.”
The recommended $1,451,065 in total funds for the project will be administered by the Northwest Regional Planning Commission. The project, Accelerating Natural Flood Management in the Lake Superior Basin, will be a joint effort encompassing areas of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin hit hard by catastrophic, repetitive flooding (six federal disaster declarations between 2012 and 2022), with impacts to local communities and an extensive network of state, local and tribally managed roads. Funding will be used to identify how the loss of headwater wetland storage and floodplain connectivity is contributing to flooding; and to implement high-impact, nature-based solutions to combat this flooding by restoring the natural hydrology. The root causes of flooding and potential restoration opportunities will be investigated using new approaches that integrate spatial and field-based assessments.
Additional information is available on the Climate Resilience Regional Challenge website.
Climate, weather, and water affect all life on our ocean planet. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict our changing environment, from the deep sea to outer space, and to manage and conserve America’s coastal and marine resources.
