Announcing A Workshop on Controlling Nonnative, Invasive Plants

Home Owners, Gardeners, Landscape Professionals and Native Plant Lovers

Learn how to control nonnative, invasive plants in your yard, town and watershed in a workshop that will be presented at three different locations: Canton Public Library (April 9), Pembroke Public Library (April 16) and The Spire in Plymouth (May 1). To register, go to: www.watershedaction.org.

This three-hour workshop is designed for people looking for basic information, how-to advice and local expertise. It will include an Overview of nonnative, invasive plant characteristics and control, Case Studies, and How to Move Forward in controlling target plants.

If you have Phragmites blocking your view, knotweed taking over your yard, purple loosestrife spreading along your pond or stream, or other invasive plants that are out of control, you will enjoy this workshop.

Amanda Crouch-Smith, a Professional Wetland Scientist and Certified Invasive Plant Manager, will cover the basics from the characteristics of nonnative, invasive plants and the worst of them in southeastern Massachusetts, to prioritization of species and control options, including mechanical, chemical and biological choices.

Several local property owners will share their experiences with small-scale projects fighting species of local concern. Lessons and advice will be applicable to a wide variety of other invasive plants.

Finally, learn how to move forward with control projects – what regulatory processes might be required, how to find assistance and identify possible funding opportunities, and what nearby community or watershed projects exist to join for results that go beyond a single property’s boundaries.

Attendees will receive several useful resources, including a guide to identifying nonnative, invasive species in Massachusetts, a checklist of steps to follow, and a list of useful websites and publications.

Register soon and save $5! The early bird fee is $15.  Workshops will be $20 at the door.

To register, go to: http://watershedaction.org, or leave a message for the event manager at: 508-746-0769.

The workshops are sponsored by Watershed Action Alliance ofSoutheastern Massachusetts, a coalition of ten watershed and two pond associations, which works to advocate and educate for healthy watersheds and clean, plentiful, and free-flowing water.

The Future of Water in Southeastern Mass: It’s Up to Us

By Shalen Lowell, WAA Social Media Manager 

“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” –Loren Eisley

Photo credit to Shalen Lowell

Passion, persistence, public engagement and community: these are some of the crucial takeaways from “The Future of Water in Southeastern Massachusetts,” an environmental networking conference co-hosted by the Watershed Action Alliance and Plimoth Plantation. Our mission for the conference, held April 24th, was to gather concerned citizens, conservation professionals, legislators, volunteers, and all those committed to preserving and protecting the waters of Southeastern Massachusetts. Our goal was to network and further strategize about how best to combat the issues in Southeastern Mass watersheds, including stormwater and wastewater concerns, dam removal, and health concerns effecting environmental recreation.

WAA’s conference consisted of seven engaging, enlightening and thoughtful panels: Fundraising for Nonprofits, Science and Data Collection, Outreach and Education, Stormwater, Drinking Water in Southeastern Massachusetts, Wastewater, and Recreational Waters. (For a summary of the panels, click here.) Eric Walberg of the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences presented as our guest plenary speaker on water resource preservation and watershed management in the face of climate change. You can catch Eric’s talk and all of the sessions on WAA’s Youtube channel.

Gorgeous view from the conference pavilion
(Shalen Lowell)

As social media manager for WAA, I was responsible for live-tweeting about all of the panels at our conference. At times such as these, I especially see the real value in how social media platforms enhance our relationships with member watershed associations, our Twitter followers and other environmentally affiliated associations in the region. People unable to attend the conference were able to follow along with the panels as I tweeted from our account with our conference hashtag #thefutureofwater. Please check out our Twitter platform @Watershed_AA to view our tweets from the day, and don’t forget to follow us, too!

My personal favorite panels were Stormwater and Fundraising for Nonprofits. Especially with regard to stormwater, my renewed interest in, and dedication to, the issue goes back to my last year at Stonehill College, when I was a Teaching Assistant for a Learning Community (LC) seminar entitled Stonehill’s Water. That semester, I assisted the LC students in drawing up proposals for stormwater solutions for the town of Brockton, MA, and I had an active part in the writing and presentation processes. Some of the solutions with which the students engaged (many of which were addressed in the stormwater panel below) included updating to more stable green infrastructure systems and continued education and outreach.

The stormwater panelists for WAA’s event included Martin Pillsbury (Environmental Director at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council), Debbie Cook (Communications Director at the North and South Rivers Watershed Association), and Newton Tedder (of EPA Region 1), with Ian Cooke, Executive Director of the Neponset River Watershed Association as moderator. The new EPA municipal stormwater permit provided inspiration for this panel, requiring a renewed effort in stormwater management for nonprofits, local agencies, and municipalities. The new permit will thus hold communities more responsible for dealing with stormwater issues. The panelists emphasized intra-watershed coordination and cooperation with regard to combating environmental degradation and especially stormwater concerns. When asked to identify “sleeper” stormwater issues, the panelists called attention to the following: effective design of green infrastructure, land use, and public education and participation. The takeaway? When it comes to stormwater, we need to take real action now, and to enhance communication and cooperation between all those players involved in ameliorating the issue.

Photo taken during the Recreational Waters panel
(Shalen Lowell)

Another of my favorite panels was Fundraising for Nonprofits. Samantha Woods, Executive Director of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, moderated, and the panelist speakers were the following: Bill Stanton (former Executive Director of the NSRWA), Sarah Kelley (Senior Program Officer of the Island Foundation), and Bethany Kendall (President and CEO of the Executive Service Corps New England). One of the most important notes I took away from this panel was also one which I had not before considered: one of the keys to funding an effective nonprofit is widening one’s scope. Several of the panelists advised looking outside local areas and tying in a nonprofit’s specific focus to other regions and wider national issues, in order to network with other organizations engaged in these issues and perhaps receive additional funding. Emphasis was also placed on donor relations (you can never thank them enough!). Most important of all, however, is personal networking. I have experienced this often enough in my personal interaction with WAA’s member watershed associations, and with the inspiring individuals in them. All the panels are now available on WAA’s YouTube channel.

Photo credit to Shalen Lowell

I was excited to make contact with those individuals I know from our member watershed associations but had not seen in quite a while! It was great to chat again in person with these hard-working and inspiring individuals that I met way back in my WAA intern days. It’s important to maintain these personal connections. On a similar note, one of the many successful outcomes to the conference was networking: networking between individuals of all different backgrounds and occupations in the region uniting with one focus in mind: the future and health of water in Southeastern Massachusetts.

To read more about this conference, the people and organizations involved, and more, please check out this article by Frank Mand of the Old Colony Memorial, another of the conference’s enigmatic attendants!

Bottle Bill Heads to the Ballot!

By Mass Audubon 

Reblogged from, and originally posted on, Mass Audubon’s “Your Great Outdoors” blog  on July 7, 2014. 

Courtesy of MASSPIRG

Last week, the Coalition to Update the Bottle Bill delivered the necessary signatures to move forward with a November ballot question that would update the three-decade-old Massachusetts Beverage Retainer Recovery Act.

Although Mass Audubon did not participate in the signature collection, we are fully supportive of the ballot campaign for this much-needed update. The campaign is heading to the ballot because the state legislature failed to pass an update to the existing bill by their deadline.

We urge Mass Audubon members and Massachusetts voters to Vote YES on Question 2 this November to Update the Bottle Bill!

About the Bottle Bill

The Bottle Bill, the nickel deposit on BEVERAGE CONTAINERS , is the state’s most successful recycling and litter prevention program. Since the Bottle Bill’s passage in 1983, more than 35 billion containers have been redeemed, contributing to a healthier environment, cleaner and safer communities, and a stronger economy. But to keep up with the times and consumers’ tastes, the Bottle Bill must be updated.

An updated Bottle Bill would expand our container deposit system to include drinks such as non-carbonated beverages, water, iced tea, juice, and sports drinks. Almost 70% of deposit beverage containers are redeemed each year under the current Bottle Bill, adding to the 9-10% of containers recovered through curbside recycling.

Overall, deposit containers are recycled at a rate of about 80%, while non-deposit containers are recycled at only 23%.

Stay Informed

You can stay up-to-date on how to help with the ballot campaign by visiting the Coalition to Update the Bottle Bill’s website.

Congratulations to the Coalition for all the work that went into collecting these signatures! We will keep you informed as the campaign moves into high gear over the summer and into the fall election season.

 To learn more about the organizations such as Mass Audubon, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and MASSPIRG that are involved with the Updated Massachusetts Bottle Bill Campaign, click their links above.

The People's Climate March: Making Waves as the Largest in History

By Shalen Lowell, Social Media Manager at Watershed Action Alliance. 

Reblogged from, and originally posted on, Shalen Lowell's official blog (Books, Brattle, and Environmental Banter) on September 26, 2014.

This week, hundreds of thousands of people across the globe participated in the People's Climate March, a worldwide civilian activist movement showing support to change UN climate policies, as the UN Climate Summit was held this week. Over 100 world leaders gathered in New York City for the summit, and over 166 countries participated in the People's Climate movement. I had the amazing fortune to be at the largest and most-attended rally of them all: the march right in the heart of NYC.

Me (Shalen) with the Wheaton College Outdoors Club

So, in order to make this all-important pilgrimage, I drove down to NYC with my sister and housemates from Outdoors Club at Wheaton College in Mass. The drive wasn't as long nor as tedious as I remembered (not like when my family and I went to pick up our Bernese Mountain Dog puppy in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York...). We stayed in Queens, thanks to the mom of one of our group who was amazing, hilarious, and very much a boisterous New Yorker. As much as I felt like outsider in the group initially, I adapted quickly, as I usually do, and chatted with one person or another about random topics like Green Shakespeare, job hunting, internships, and my hapless postgrad life.

We drove down Saturday, arriving at night, and decided to make the trek from Queens to the heart of Manhattan for a bit of exploring. While this may seem like a nonchalant journey, between the walking, bussing to the subway, and the long train ride in, it took us over an hour...But once in the city, I was mesmerized by the energy, pulsing out of various restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and concerts, not to mention the sparkling Empire State Building and the One World Trade Center off in the distance. Remembering the smoggy silhouette of NYC as we drove over one of the bridges to Queens, with the skyscrapers just hanging in a casual slump across the harbor, I was momentarily startled at how enormous they were in person. I had been to NYC once in 7th grade, but I didn't remember the city as looming and intimidating as it presented itself. Being in NYC even for two days made me miss the comforting streets and sites of Boston like no other. 

The One World Trade Center, in the distance

Anyway, we went for a quick bite at a Chinese restaurant and poked around Manhattan. Right nearby on this cute little side street, lined with apartments that led into a square-like area that reminded me of the neighborhoods of the sitcom Friends, there was a free jazz concert by a local band, Emefe. I must look into their music more, because their mix of jazz, rock, and pseudo Africana music was unforgettable. They had a cool vibe, and the concert was a nice (and free) way to unwindafter an exhausting and stressful day of travel. Splitting up afterwards, Steph, few friends, and I ate some gourmet berry crunch donuts, passed a Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, and poked around in a bookstore (What else would a recently graduated English major do?) before meeting with the group and trekking back to Queens for a much needed sleep,the ten of us piled on various beds, couches and floors.

The very next day, September 21st, was THE day: at last I was ready to step out for one of the most worthy causes I know, supporting the comprehensive revision of global climate change policies. The People's Climate March in NYC kicked off the Climate Summit this week, and in this participatory event, it was the US peoples' time to shine, to show our strength in numbers, and to reaffirm our commitment to environmental justice. The overcast and rainy day did not deter the 400,000 plus people amassing along the edge of Central Park, preparing for the march. I felt this magical and inexplicable moment as we exited the subway, seeing students, elders, activists, environmental organizations, and regular people alike with a plethora of signage, banners, shirts, hats, anything proclaiming their support of the march. I felt a sense of camaraderie immediately with these people I did not know, people I only saw in passing. An older woman came up to our group and asked where we were from (to which we answered Boston, Mass.), and she congratulated and praised us for coming out to support the climate march. She asked for our picture and told us she was "ecstatic these issues are reaching the younger generations. It makes me so happy to see young adults involved." Goosebumps passed all over me as I realized this was for sure not going to be my last march: I found my calling in environmental justice all over again, and I was meant to do this.

Packed together like sardines,
awaiting the start of the student march!

We were then off to stand in the student section of the march, so we walked 40 blocks up to 81st street where the student section of the march congregated. The walk there was a sublime and surreal experience, as the activity in the normally bustling New York City was halted--all for the sake of supporting this hopefully life-changing climate summit. We walked by Lincoln Center (Project Runway!), briefly Radio City Music Hall, and afterwards the edge of Central Park. We spent a draining amount of time standing around and waiting for the earlier portions of the march to spread out and reach us, so random and rambunctious chants broke out across the crowd as the anticipation mounted and I grew increasingly eager and anxious for the march to begin! Our group mingled with the crowd, and conversed with random strangers about the cause, why we were here, from where we came, etc. This one gentleman was marching with a wheelbarrow full of ice, an interactive prop to represent the melting ice caps of the North (as the day grew on and the ice itself melted). The whole drive and sleep-deprived weekend lead up to this moment and I wanted it to just start already! At 12:58pm exactly, the chatter and small talk ceased completely for a stark moment of silence, hands raised, for those people across the globe who have been affected and continue to be affected by the deleterious effects climate change.

With sore feet and our moods beginning to sour with anxious waiting, our group decided to cut around to the sidewalk and start marching ahead to where the crowds were moving. We huddled on the edge of a short trail off of Central Park until we FINALLY saw the crowds moving! This was our cue to jump in and begin to march. 

The next couple hours were a complete blur of color, chanting, chatting with random people, and dancing to a fantastic marching band a vets group had as a feature in their group march. One of the aspects I was most struck by was the diversity of groups: you have the vets, members of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, a crowd of particularly vocal Socialists (in which group we accidentally got caught up...), a Free Palestine movement group, various college students from across the country, church congregations, grandparents, parents, and children, anyone and everyone you could imagine. That's the wonderful and sobering fact about the Climate March: people of all ages, generations, ethic, social, political, and religious backgrounds came together, united, in one significant and unifying cause. Events such as this actually give me hope for the future, one which before I was convinced was very bleak. 

The chaos and color of the march

Popping in and out of the march consumed most of our afternoon, resting here and there on the sidelines. Out of the corner of my eye in the latter half of the afternoon, I saw a splash of purple stick out among the crowd, and my immediate reaction was, "Stonehill!" At first I thought I was hallucinating, immediately associating any color of deep purple with my own alma mater, but sure enough a bit farther along in the march, I saw it again, and yes! there were students with Stonehill shirts and sweatshirts! The realization was enough to perk me out of my stupor, but then I caught a glimpse of Professor Mooney, my Stonehill Environmental Studies adviser, and for whose LC I TAed last semester! I felt such a comforting wave of palpable relief, recognizing such a familiar face among a crowd of strangers on this exhausting trip. I was SUPER happy, what are the chances out of 400,000+ people in that march that day, that I would see the Stonehill group? Unreal and amazing. She was certainly ecstatic and surprised to see me there too as we embraced; it was an unforgettable and incredible coincidence. I'm so glad I saw Corina there too, I really miss her. I miss Stonehill very much: not the nearly unbearable stress that academic life demands, but the experiences, friends, casual chats about environmental policy and literary criticism which consumed my undergrad days.

What were my motivations for attending the march? I walked for my future, for my children's future, for us all, but most importantly, for the global ecosystem. I walked to recommit myself to preserving and protecting the Earth, preventing further harm from befalling it. Finally, I walked to demonstrate my commitment to the watersheds of Southeastern Massachusetts, and the Watershed Action Alliance, the watershed nonprofit for which I work. I cannot wait to march in more movements in the future, and this one in particular was such an incredible opportunity. How does it feel to be a part of history made, to be a part of something bigger than myself? Indescribable.

To find out more about the People's Climate March, you can visit their site here: http://peoplesclimate.org/.

Don't forget to follow me (Shalen Lowell) as well as WAA on Twitter, and as always please feel free to like, share, and reblog my post!

Reduce carbon emissions for a healthy Bay

By Kati Maginel, Captain and Education Specialist at Save the Bay—Narragansett Bay.

Reblogged from, and originally posted on, the Save the Bay—Narragansett Bay’s Tides blog on March 27, 2014.

EDUCATION THURSDAY

Kati Maginel
Captain and Education Specialist

One of my interests in my work at Save The Bay is to incorporate learning into our curriculum about sustainability, healthy living, and green communities. A healthier and better-informed individual can become a community asset by monitoring the health of Narragansett Bay. Responsible stewardship of our waters results in a more vibrant economy boosted by a diversity of recreational and sustainable commercial use. Our very culture in Rhode Island is intimately linked to healthy waterways and accessible coastlines; they go hand in hand, after all.

With these guiding principles, OSEEC AmeriCorps member Anna Kate Hein and I applied for a professional development opportunity run by the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI). We were excited to find out that we were accepted! 

Our first seminar was hosted at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA. We found NNOCCI to be a well-researched and well-funded institution that is devoted to providing educators the resources needed to communicate climate information in a clear and scientific way. They leave visitors and students empowered with information needed to address climate change in their communities. 

Ninety percent of Americans rate climate change as their largest environmental concern. We can all agree that it’s an overwhelming and complex issue to tackle. One of the reasons the issue is so daunting is the multitude of factors that contribute to climate change as our understanding of the crisis evolves.

NNOCCI encourages us to use this metaphor to understand the basic science behind the changes we are witnessing:

“When we drive cars and use electricity and go about our daily activities, we burn fossil fuels like coal and gas. This pumps more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and this build-up creates a blanket effect, trapping in heat around the world. The ocean and the air absorb this excess heat.”

As educators, we can help the public to understand the changes to our ecosystem as our climate continues to change. All of the changes occurring can be addressed by the same simple solution: reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that we release into the atmosphere.

My personal goal is to reduce carbon dioxide by growing vegetables for family, neighborhood, and friends, and to be a resource for others in my community who wish to do the same. Eating locally grown food means fresher, healthier food, and a giant reduction in the amount of CO2 emitted, therefore thinning the CO2 blanket surrounding the earth.

Healthy Bay and healthy people! What more could we ask for? 

For more information on how to get involved in community efforts to reduce our carbon emissions, check out my favorite local news source, EcoRI News, and Aperion Institute’s Sustainable RI Directory.

- Kati

*Special thanks to NNOCCI’s research partner, Frame Works Institute

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New Small Dam Projects in the Pipeline

By Ian Cooke, Executive Director of the Neponset River Watershed Association

Originally posted on the NepRWA blog on March 3, 2014

After some initial setbacks, our small dams program has regrouped and is now targeting three dams on Pine Tree Brook in Milton. We've also been working on a list of "micro" dams that can be remediated using volunteer crews.

Last spring, the Neponset Watershed Association launched a new “Small Dams Program” with the help of more than 100 local donors, a challenge grant and support from Patagonia and the NLT Foundation. The goal is to begin addressing more than 100 obsolete dams on the Neponset and its tributaries, which collectively take a heavy toll on the health of the river and the fish and wildlife that depend on it.

Harland Street flood control dam.

However, just a few months after launching the effort, we were sent back to the drawing board when the two pilot

Harland Street flood control dam.

sites we had selected ran into trouble with landowners who were initially supportive but were not ready to move forward in the end.

We have spent the last several months regrouping, and I’m pleased to report that we seem to be back on track with several new possibilities in the pipeline. During the fall we revisited the comprehensive survey of dams across the watershed that we had completed with the help of volunteers a number of years ago, filled in some of the missing pieces, and went through an exercise to prioritize potential restoration sites.

The result is a new focus on three small dams along Pine Tree Brook in Milton. The three dams lie on land owned by the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and/or the Town of Milton between Canton Avenue and Unquity Road, near the Ulin Rink. Two are small dams with no modern purpose, and no aesthetic or other public use. The third is the Harland Street flood control dam, which is one of only two flood control dams in the Watershed, but it appears that a minor modification could restore fish passage without impacting flood control operations.

The upper reaches of Pine Tree Brook are believed to support a wild trout population, and restoration at these three sites could potentially be a benefit to this iconic and relatively rare species. Over the longer term, modifications at the Pope’s Pond Dam further downstream could potentially open all of Pine Tree Brook to migratory herring and shad spawning, once fish passage is restored at the Baker Dam. However, work at Pope’s Pond would be considerably more complex and is not part of the immediate project.  dams along Pine Tree Brook. Click image to enlarge

Map of dams along Pine Tree Brook.

Following site visits with staff from DCR and the Milton DPW, a decision was made to submit these three sites to be considered as “priority projects” with the Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) within the Mass. Department of Fish and Game. Priority project status would officially put these dams on DER’s workplan, opening the way for technical assistance and potentially for additional funding down the road. In the meantime, we are getting ready for a site visit with a panel of volunteer experts representing various technical disciplines from engineering to biology, drawn from the ranks of academia and other interested professionals who live in the Watershed.

We are also working on pulling together a short list of “micro-dams.” These are mostly little more than a few rocks piled in a stream that could easily be disassembled by a small group of volunteers in an afternoon. Even though there isn’t much to these mini structures, they still have a significant impact on stream habitat and aquatic wildlife by fragmenting stream habitats, and trapping fish in small, isolated stream reaches. After doing some permitting work on these mini structures (yes, even things this small still need permits!) we hope to organize some volunteer dam removal parties.

Special thanks to Margaret Kearns of Instar Ecology who has been helping to lead our small dam program over the last few months.

For more information, contact Ian Cooke at cooke@neponset.org.

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In an Increasingly Unpredictable World, We Must Secure Nature to Secure our Water

By Giulio Boccaletti, Managing Director of Global Water at the The Nature Conservancy

Reblogged from The Nature Conservancy’s Conservancy Talk blog, originally posted on February 21, 2014

A balmy Sochi. Photo: Flickr user waferboard under a Creative Commons license.

This has been an unpredictable winter for the northern hemisphere. The Winter Olympics is wrapping up in a balmy Sochi, Russia, where they have artificially produced snow in bulk and where, some say, it might well be impossible to host winter games within 50 years¹.

Meanwhile, California has seen record low snowpack – a critical source of fresh water for California farms and homes for the rest of the year.

On the other end of the spectrum, the “polar vortex” has put a hard freeze on large portions of the United States, stalling out regional economies, while leaving the more northern icepacks – those in Alaska and Greenland, for example – susceptible to unusually warm temperatures.

This winter’s extremes, the record summer heat and drought in different parts of the world in recent years, and the “100-year storms” happening seemingly every year of late, are sending a clear message: unpredictable is the new normal.

The implications of this reality cut across all aspects of our lives. And, it starts with our water future.

As I’ve previously described in these pages², water – the world’s silent currency – is a fundamental determinant of growth. As the foundation of our economies and societies, our global water system carries a roughly $500 billion annual price tag³ – a cost expected to double as billions more global consumers come on stage.

Historically, we have built this infrastructure – dams, levees, canals, and water treatment plants – based on the expectation that they will reliably serve our needs for decades, or even centuries. They have been built to withstand the most predictable events – based on long historical time series of hydrological and climate data – with the assumption that things will remain largely unchanged.

But, things are changing, and changing fast. As a result, we can’t just “engineer” a sustainable water future. As current infrastructure becomes increasingly inadequate in the face of a changing climate and a rapidly urbanizing world, we must make our future choices based on a broader portfolio of possible solutions.

 

Flooded banks of the Mississippi River. Photo: © David Y. Lee

In this reality, the role of nature in securing a sustainable water future becomes critically important.

Take flood protection on the mighty Mississippi River, for example. My colleague, Jeff Opperman, a senior freshwater scientist and the leader of our hydropower practice, wrote a great story about this a couple years ago in our Conservancy Talk blog.

In 1927, a 100-year flood struck the lower Mississippi. More than 100 levees failed or were overtopped, killing hundreds of people and displacing more than half a million from their homes. The disaster proved that we could not completely depend on our assumptions of how the most extreme weather events would behave, nor could we depend on the solution – a levees-only, “walled off” approach – that we thought would protect us from such events.

In direct response to this disaster, the Army Corps of Engineers began looking at the entire river basin for better flood protection options, rather than relying solely on the disjointed system of levees. This new approach included setting aside floodplain areas, which could reconnect to the river during major flood events – thereby giving the river more room to spread its floodwater and reducing pressure on levees.

Fast forward to another 100-year storm on the Mississippi in 2011. Despite the fact that this storm carried even more water than the 1927 storm, none of the levees failed, damage to property was relatively minimal, and there was no loss of life. By blending nature with built solutions, the Army Corps was able to expand the set of possibilities that the Mississippi River basin was prepared to absorb.

Nature is resilient, cost-effective and adaptable – whether its floodplains along the Mississippi or healthy watersheds that can help us more sustainably secure drinking water amidst increasing demands.

The challenge in achieving blended, more flexible water solutions is one of scale. Even if natural infrastructure accounted for roughly 10 percent of the anticipated future cost of our global water systems, we would still be looking at roughly $100 billion in investment in such solutions – an order of magnitude larger than the conservation community’s current collective scale.

Achieving scale, therefore, will require leadership from businesses, governments, and communities. We must pivot away from the traditional “white coats” management of water in the background of society to an active management of shared risks by all parts of society.

To motivate leadership and drive investments, we must continue to demonstrate the power of nature in helping us manage against these risks as resources become increasingly constrained.

As extreme droughts increase in frequency, farmers will need to grow more on less land, using less water. As 100-year storms become more frequent, governments and dam builders will need new tools and science to enable new water infrastructure projects that optimize the diverse functions of an entire river basin. And, as urban populations balloon, everyone will need to invest more in protecting the world’s natural sources of drinking water.

While we may have been able to engineer the 2014 Olympics in a sub-tropical location that appears to be phasing out its ability to support winter sports, we won’t be able to engineer a sustainable water future in this less predictable world without looking to nature to help us.

References:

1. Scott, D., Stieger, R., Rutty, M. and P. Johnson (2014). ‘The future of the Winter Olympics in a warmer World’. University of Waterloo. Available online at: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/sites/ca.news/files/uploads/files/oly_winter_games_warmer_world_2014.pdf. 2. Boccaletti, G. (2013). ‘Nature’s silent currency’. Global Water Forum.  Available online at: http://www.globalwaterforum.org/2013/03/20/natures-silent-currency/. 3. White, S., Biernat, J., Duffy, K., Kavalar, M.H., Kort, W.E., Naumes, J.S., Slezak, M.R. and C.R. Stoffel (2010). ‘Water markets of the United States and the World: A strategic analysis for the Milwaukee Water Council, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’. Final Report. Available online at: http://www.kysq.org/docs/White_WaterMarkets.pdf.

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