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 $3.3 million for projects in Minnesota to make the state’s coast more resilient to climate change and other coastal hazards. The project areas encompass the Lake Superior coastal regions of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. 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 $3.3 million to help underserved communities in Minnesota 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.
“Minnesota’s coastal communities have seen firsthand the impacts of climate change on Lake Superior and the Lake Superior Basin,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “This funding will help proactively address hazards in the state and the region and advance climate resilience in a number of ways, to include providing technical assistance and critical resources to communities, and finding and implementing lasting solutions. To ensure success, this project is working to get all community members involved and engaged in this effort, including tribal citizens.”
Recommended projects and funding amounts in Minnesota include:
- Advancing Regional Climate Resilience for Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Region. St. Louis County: $1,849,228.
This project will proactively address the impacts of climate change in the coastal region of Minnesota’s Lake Superior — the largest Great Lake and second largest freshwater lake in the world. Project goals will be achieved through five overarching strategies: 1) establishing a regional resilience collaborative; 2) incorporating Indigenous knowledge; 3) building community capacity; 4) creating a regional resilience plan and pathways to implementation; and 5) providing resources and technical support to communities. An important aspect of the effort will involve engagement with tribal nations and local communities. - Accelerating Natural Flood Management in the Lake Superior Basin. Northwest Regional Planning Commission: $1,451,065.
The recommended $1,451,065 in total funds for this project will be administered by the Northwest Regional Planning Commission as a joint effort encompassing work across areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan 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 1) identify how the loss of headwater wetland storage and floodplain connectivity is contributing to the flooding problem; and 2) 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.
