The good news is, we can protect coastal habitats and make sure affected families are helped, by reauthorizing and reforming the National Flood Insurance Program. Congress can pass reforms to improve this critical program, but they must act before it expires on November 21st.

Please speak out for coastal communities and the reddish egret before it’s too late to reform the program!

Though the 2018 hurricane season has just begun, many communities and wildlife are still recovering from Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma. The reddish egret, a bird that feeds and nests in natural areas along the coast of Florida, is one of many species that relies on these fragile coastal floodplains impacted by last year’s destructive storms. The Florida population is threatened by several factors, including loss of crucial habitat from dredge and fill activities.

Use your voice to speak up for wildlife: Urge Congress to reauthorize and reform the National Flood Insurance Program to better protect and prepare people and wildlife in the face of increasing risks from flooding and other natural disasters.

Our nation’s natural features like floodplains, wetlands, rivers, and coasts provide vital wildlife habitat and support an incredibly diverse array of fish and wildlife. Healthy natural infrastructure also often serves as the first line of defense against natural disasters – protecting communities and properties by acting as a sponge during floods, storing water in times of drought, and reducing the impact of severe storms.

Broken Federal Policies Can Be Fixed

Unfortunately, decades of federal policies have led to increased development and alteration of these natural defenses, reducing their ability to protect communities and wildlife from storms that are becoming increasingly severe.

One of the primary culprits is the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). NFIP was originally intended to reduce the amount of development in floodplains and to limit people’s exposure to flooding, but the exact opposite has happened. The program instead subsidizes and encourages people to build homes in ecologically sensitive places where flooding is likely, and does not effectively model or communicate risk, giving homeowners a false sense of security – all at the expense of the American taxpayer.

The good news is, Congress has the power to fix this. In order to address these shortcomings, NFIP must be reauthorized and improved to include meaningful reforms that will better prepare and protect people and wildlife in the face of increasing risks from flooding and other natural disasters.

The National Flood Insurance Program must be reauthorized and improved to include the below reforms:

• Invest in and encourage community-wide, nature-based mitigation – such as restoration of protective wetlands and riparian corridors, or installation of living shorelines – to reduce risk and therefore reduce premiums. Nature-based mitigation also has unique co-benefits, including improved habitat for wildlife and increased recreational opportunities
• Continue to move toward insurance rates that reflect true risk and create incentives for floodplain and natural resource protection instead of construction in flood-prone areas
• Target subsidies to low-income property owners
• Prioritize natural functions to protect against floods, instead of using levees and other structural solutions
• Encourage and utilize state-of-the-art risk analysis and accurate floodplain mapping
• Ensure consumers have choice and can purchase more affordable private policies

These commonsense reforms will not only save taxpayer money but also benefit wildlife and our outdoor economy. Healthy wetlands and floodplains are crucial to the survival of many threatened and endangered species, and provide areas for people to hunt, fish, and enjoy the outdoors. Nearly half of all North American bird species rely on wetlands and 90% of fish caught by America’s recreational anglers are wetland dependent, as are hundreds of species of birds, waterfowl, and wildlife.

Natural infrastructure works. During Hurricane Sandy, natural infrastructure prevented $625 million in flood damages in 12 coastal states and reduced damages by 20 to 30% in the four states with the greatest wetland coverage. Similarly, natural infrastructure reduced Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge in some New Orleans neighborhoods by two to three feet,  and levees protected by wetland buffers had a much greater chance of surviving than levees without natural safeguards.

Tell Congress not to waste this extraordinary chance to protect our wildlife, outdoor heritage, communities, and properties against future natural disasters by reauthorizing and reforming NFIP by the end of November.

Congress must encourage nature-based, community-wide mitigation strategies to help communities be more resilient and prepare for future storms and floods before they actually happen.

Amidst this Congressional inaction, the federal emergency declaration authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide resources and support for Flint expires on August 14, 2016. This means the state will now bear the full burden of water supply costs like bottled water and filters, though federal agencies remain committed to restoring the drinking water system.

In 2014, Flint stopped purchasing drinking water from Detroit, and instead started pumping it from the local Flint River to save money. Over a year later, the city switched back to using Detroit’s water, but not before thousands of children were exposed to lead. Residents, who immediately voiced concerns over the brown, smelly water flowing from their taps were ignored, and then lied to about the safety of their drinking water.

Congress must move immediately to provide federal aid to Flint to update its water infrastructure and to help minimize the health impact of lead on Flint’s citizens. Flint’s families need immediate federal relief as well as long-term water infrastructure improvements to help them move forward.

How to Fix Flint

Investing in and upgrading our nation’s water infrastructure is vital to fixing Flint and preventing another environmental and public health disaster. A report by the American Water Works Association found that much of our drinking water infrastructure is reaching the end of its useful life and needs to be rebuilt and replaced. Postponing investments in our drinking water infrastructure will only make the problem worse.

Currently, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund provides financial aid to water systems to improve drinking water infrastructure, and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund provides financial support for water quality infrastructure projects like wastewater and stormwater treatment, agricultural non-point pollution reduction, and water reuse projects. Both programs should be reauthorized with increased funding to help utilities make necessary infrastructure updates.

In addition to updating aging infrastructure, we also need to better manage the quality of the water flowing into our pipes. The more polluted our source waters are, the more treatment is required in order to make the water drinkable before it even enters municipal water systems.

The Flint River was already polluted from biological, industrial, and human waste, contaminating it with bacteria and heavy metals. Road salt runoff raised chlorine levels in the river, making it more acidic. In order to disinfect the water, the city also added chlorine, and the water became so corrosive it chewed away at the city’s aging water pipes, leaching lead into the drinking water.

By protecting streams, wetlands, and floodplains, we protect our nation’s drinking water supply. Currently, small streams and wetlands that contribute to the drinking water for one third of Americans are at risk of pollution. These same waters that contribute to our drinking water supply are also home to numerous fish and wildlife species that also benefit from cleaner water. If we better protect our source waters, it will reduce the cost of and need to treat drinking water before it enters our homes.

Although the federal emergency declaration for Flint is expiring, the disaster is far from over for the community. Water quality has improved since the city switched back to using water from Lake Huron, but Flint’s families are still unable to drink the water flowing into their homes without using a filter. The state of our nation’s water infrastructure all but guarantees that a similar disaster could happen somewhere else – something we simply cannot afford.

Continued inaction is unacceptable. Tell Congress to immediately move forward with effective relief efforts to help Flint recover and to protect our nation’s water quality.

In a follow up to our well-received Natural Defenses from Hurricanes and Floods report, and with support from Allied World Assurance, the National Wildlife Federation is developing a new national report that will culminate in an exciting national policy roundtable on ecological approaches to natural hazard risk reduction, and we are currently soliciting case studies from climate change adaptation and resilience leaders across the nation.

Would you like to see your work highlighted for a national policy audience and other community leaders around the country? Submit a case study to our team about a project, plan, or policy innovation that reduces risks to human communities while generating ecological co-benefits to fish and wildlife habitat. Selected case studies will be highlighted in our new report and representatives from selected projects will be invited to participate in a 2016 Washington, DC policy roundtable to promote the broad-scale use of these approaches to climate change adaptation and identify policy mechanisms to encourage widespread adoption.

Potential areas of focus for the case studies include, but are not limited to:

• Conservation or restoration of natural systems and ecological processes that offer specific risk reduction benefits.
• Policy innovations that preserve, promote, protect, natural systems for hazard risk reduction while generating habitat benefits.
• Managing fish, plant, or wildlife species in ways that increase ecological and community resilience.
• Living shorelines projects that incorporate ecological processes and use site-appropriate biological materials.
• The use of hybrid gray-green infrastructure for stormwater management and flood risk reduction.
• Local zoning and land use policy that intentionally incorporates natural buffers to flood or erosion hazards or intentionally moves people out of harm’s way.

Help NWF advance the case for nature-based solutions nationally by sharing your story now. The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2015.

To highlight your work, please send a brief (500 word limit) summary to Nicole Holstein at the National Wildlife Federation. 

Detailed inquiries may be directed to Karl Schrass or Stacy Small-Lorenz.

Our First Line of Defense in a Changing Climate

As the wetland scientists said in their brief, wetlands provide essential services and economic value to people, businesses, and communities. They improve water quality, provide flood control and coastal storm mitigation, support fish, shellfish, bird, and other wildlife populations, and sequester climate-harming carbon. The destruction and degradation of wetlands trigger a cumulative loss of wetland functions and services, harming people, communities, and wildlife.

Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, perennial flooding in the Mississippi River Basin – we are finally learning from the drumbeat of extreme weather events that our wetlands and floodplains are our first line of defense against damaging storms and rising tides.

Just this week, the President announced a comprehensive climate plan highlighting the importance of protecting and restoring our shorelines to protect communities from these hazards.

Federal, state and local water resource managers are just now beginning to incorporate these lessons into their civil works, watershed, and land use planning and decision-making – beginning to leverage these natural systems to protect communities.

Yet, despite the imperative to protect communities in the face of a changing climate, a five-justice majority of the Court has tied the hands of water resource managers, making it more difficult for them to work with landowners and developers to permit safe and environmentally sound developments while protecting and restoring wetlands and floodplains.

Five Key Takeaways From This Week’s Supreme Court Decision

• Good news: The Court acknowledges the state’s interest in wetland and floodplain conservation and mitigation: “Insisting that landowners internalize the negative externalities of their conduct is a hallmark of responsible land-use policy, and we have long sustained such regulations against constitutional attack.”

  

• Bad news: The majority now puts the burden on state and local resource managers to prove the “essential nexus” and “rough proportionality” between the impacts of developing in these waters and the permit conditions required to mitigate those impacts.

• After Koontz, water resource managers must be very careful what they ask for. It seems they must now prove this nexus and proportionality even – as in the Koontz case – for possible mitigation conditions they might discuss with developers in trying to negotiate an environmentally responsible development permit.

• Wetland mitigation conditions should pass muster where they are clearly based on scientifically sound assessments of wetland functions lost and gained in a watershed context, and are otherwise consistent with the “no net loss” of wetlands policy, and the mitigation standards set forth in the National Research Council’s 2001 mitigation report and the 2008 Corps and EPA mitigation rule. However, meeting this burden of proof in each case is resource intensive and requires solid, watershed-specific science.

• After Koontz, the prudent course of action for water resource managers may be to just say no. Proposing to permittees innovative and flexible mitigation conditions can be a trap, ensnaring state and local governments in costly and wasteful litigation. As Justice Kagan says in her dissent, “if every suggestion could become the subject of a lawsuit …the [District’s] lawyer can give but one recommendation: Deny the permits, without giving Koontz any advice – even if he asks for guidance.”

Water Resource Managers Must Protect the Public Interest

What mustn’t happen is for water resource agencies to simply approve development projects in wetlands and floodplains — abandoning their duty to protect the public interest and putting communities and wildlife in harm’s way. The Koontz decision makes their job harder, but conditions on the ground demand that water resource managers use available legal, science, planning, and fiscal tools to protect the public’s interest in wetlands and floodplains.

The Costs of Flooding

Since 1990, Puget Sound has been ravaged by 15 major flood disasters—that’s more than one every other year. As outlined in our new report, Changing Course: Why Protecting Floodplains is Good for People and Wildlife, thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed and at least 58 people have died due to flooding. These floods cost taxpayers more than $1.37 billion in clean up and recovery costs.

Humans are not the only ones affected by floodplain development. Since 1900, Puget Sound Chinook salmon populations have declined 93% and nine runs of Chinook have gone extinct. Orca whales, which eat primarily salmon, have declined by half. Both are now under federal protection through the Endangered Species Act, but habitat and populations continue to decline.

Developing in Floodplains

By filling floodplains and leveeing rivers, we’ve diminished the ability of the land to absorb large storms. More than 90% of our floodplains and wetlands have been lost to development, agriculture and other human activities. Of the floodplains that remain, more than 70% are in poor condition. The result is an increase in devastating flood damage, degradation of Puget Sound, and steep declines in fish and wildlife populations.

Solutions for Our Floodplains

As scientists consider how to address salmon declines and larger storms, they are coming to the conclusion that protecting and restoring floodplains is one of the most important things we can do to help salmon and orca while reducing risk for people.

The first step is to prevent more harmful development in flood-prone areas. In other words, we must stop making the problem worse. The second step is to fix our past mistakes by repairing already damaged floodplains. We can do this by buying out frequently flooded properties, setting back or removing levees to widen the river and floodplain, and restoring floodplains to recreate critical ecological functions.

So, is putting Puget Sound’s next million people in floodplains a good idea? So far, building in floodplains has been bad for people, bad for taxpayers, and bad for fish and wildlife. The question should not be, where are we going to put the next million people. The question should be, where are we going to put them, safely?

Finding a safe home for Puget Sound’s next million people will mean building smarter. Restoring and protecting our floodplains will mean that Puget Sound’s next generation will not just be safer from floods; they will also still be able to see salmon and orca leaping from our waters.

For more information, be sure to read our report: Changing Course: Why Protecting Floodplains is Good for People and Wildlife, and watch our video here.

Mark Your Calendar

On May 2nd you have the opportunity to maximize your donation to the National Wildlife Federation by donating through the Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG program. GiveBIG is a one day opportunity to donate to Seattle area nonprofits including the National Wildlife Federation. When you donate through GiveBig we receive a pro-rated portion of the matching funds, making your donation go further. All you have to do is make a donation online anytime on the second of May to the National Wildlife Federation!

When you make your donation you are automatically entered into a drawing to win an additional $1,000 to the National Wildlife Federation.

Opportunity is Knocking

By donating you have the opportunity to help us continue some of your favorite programs and campaigns. We work hard to protect our wildlife and wild places for today and future generations in offices around the country, including right here in Seattle! Here at the Pacific Regional Center we work on some of the most pressing issues in Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii and Alaska.

Protecting Floodplain Habitat in Puget Sound

Floodplains are critical habitat for many of the endangered salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest and are swiftly disappearing under rapidly expanding development. This development threatens the endangered salmon and the orcas that feed on them and puts people in harm’s way. We are working to find ways to help protect and restore these floodplains for the health of the salmon and orcas and the safety of local communities.

Creating Climate-Resilient Communities

Water is one of the most important natural resources on the planet. Here in Washington State our increasing population and Climate Change are putting more and more stress on this already stressed resource which is critical for wildlife and people. We are working with a broad coalition to find balanced solutions to water demands in Eastern Washington to find solutions to this pressing issue.

Be Out There

Today’s children are spending less and less time in the out of doors and more time plugged in inside. Our Be Out There campaign uses education, conservation and advocacy to help unplug kids and get them back outside. Programs include the Great American Backyard Campout, Ranger Rick, Eco-Schools, Gardening for Wildlife, National Wildlife Week and more!

Water Water Everywhere

According to the Department of Ecology’s Washington State’s Integrated Climate Response Strategy, increases in winter runoff and precipitation and more intense precipitation will lead to more severe flooding in the winter months. For many rivers, this will mean an increase of the magnitude of the 100-year flood under natural conditions. These events are predicted to increase by 20 to 30 percent by 2040, which will put more people in danger and stress our existing flood control systems, such as dams, levees and dykes.

The Salmon Connection

Climate change will impact salmon by changing the stream flow, changing and decreasing habitat and increasing water temperatures. Exposure to severe floods is predicted to cause an increase in mortality for the eggs and juvenile fish of fall- and winter-spawning fish. These populations include Chinook, coho, chum, sockeye salmon, and bull trout.

Climate change will also result in a significant loss of salmon habitat. By 2090, potential losses in Oregon and Idaho will exceed 40 percent, and will top 22 percent in Washington. Floodplains—essential habitat for salmon—are already degraded, with 71% of Washington State’s floodplains in poor condition. Development continues in these sensitive areas, degrading what little floodplain habitat is left. National Wildlife Federation recognizes this loss of habitat as an important and pressing issue. We have taken the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to court over the impacts of the National Flood Insurance Program on salmon runs in Puget Sound.

It is imperative that we protect existing habitat and restore degraded habitat in order to help save our salmon and help protect against the impacts of climate change. If we do not we will lose a part of our natural history and culture. We have the opportunity to change and must act.

At first the rains come as a light drizzle, tapping out a soothing melody on rooftops and windowpanes. Soon the tempo quickens to a loud drum beat of impending danger. As the rain falls harder and harder the river begins to swell, slowly creeping up its banks. Even the levees that have been constructed to shelter communities from floods are not immune to the growing threat and soon water begins to spill into the land around the river. At one point this land was left free for flooding but then people began to develop along the river. Levees were built and vegetation removed which destroyed the natural processes of the river. With out the natural protection offered from the floodplain the water begins to swirl into the basements and living rooms of the houses. Furniture, family heirlooms, floors and walls are submerged by the flood waters as the residents have to evacuate in a hurry.

This is a scene that is played out over and over again throughout the years and across watersheds. Many homes were insured through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which provides subsidized flood insurance for those living in floodplains. The insurance makes it possible for people to rebuild in the same location after a flood. These rebuilt homes only continue to put their owners in danger from floods and negatively impact salmon. As of 2011 Washington state has had 833 repeatedly flooded homes(those that have been flooded three times or more) and cost tax payers $71 million in insurance claims.

A Possible Way Out

When people are flooded out of their homes it takes an emotional and financial toll on the families, many of which were unaware of the extent of danger that living in these areas presents. The FEMA buy out program is a long and complex process that offers the possibility of moving people out of floodplains and restoring the floodplain, helping people and wildlife. This video shows firsthand accounts of flood victims’ experiences with flooding and using the buyout program.

Bad for People and Wildlife

Developing in floodplains puts people in danger and destroys critical habitat for endangered salmon runs in the Puget Sound region. It is for this reason that the National Wildlife Federation is involved in a lawsuit against FEMA. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) no federal agency can take actions that harm an ESA listed species. By promoting development in floodplains FEMA is violating the ESA and threatening endangered salmon runs and the orcas which rely on salmon for their primary food source.

Moving Forward

Instead of continuing to bail people out of flooded properties FEMA should make it easier for people to move out of the floodplain and to higher, safer ground. This is of particular importance in the face of Climate Change which will cause an increase in extreme events such as flooding. Properties that they do ensure should be safe for people and wildlife.

A Natural Legacy

In the Pacific Northwest, we are blessed with the kinds of surroundings that most people just read about in the glossy pages of magazines. Accordingly, we want to build homes and businesses as close to that natural beauty as we can get – often, in floodplains. Unfortunately, in doing so, we destroy the natural systems that sustain this essential ecosystem.

Floodplains are Critical Salmon Habitat

Salmon have forever been our pride in the Puget Sound Region. It’s for good reason, they are a keystone species that keeps this ecosystem living and breathing. Unfortunately, their unique fresh and saltwater lifestyle makes them very susceptible to the alterations that we have made to the vulnerable riparian areas on which they depend.

Development adds impervious surfaces which carry storm water runoff full of pollutants straight into nearby rivers. All of these factors have resulted in the dramatic decline of Puget Sound salmon populations.

These impacts also have a negative impact on other marine life. According to one study, orcas, who feed on the fish and contain 400-550 times higher concentration of toxic PCBs than humans, are leaving the Sound for cleaner waters up north, where food is more abundant.

The State of Washington’s Floodplains

The National Marine Fisheries Services cited these sobering facts in a recent evaluation of floodplain habitat impacts on Puget Sound salmon populations:

1. 71 percent of the State’s floodplains are in poor condition.
2. More than 90 percent of the wetlands and floodplains once associated with lowland alluvial rivers of the Puget Sound basin have been lost.
3. Ditching, diking, and dredging activities in floodplains, primarily found in urban and agricultural regions, were associated with a 73 percent loss of coho salmon rearing habitat in the Skagit River system.

The Impact of the National Flood Insurance Program on Salmon

Since the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) began, it has served to make building in floodplains more affordable; with the assurance that those properties will be repaired if they flood. Our decisions about where to build homes and businesses typically come down to economics, not concern over fish. We don’t intend to harm salmon. We just want to be close to nature, and don’t want our homes to flood. But instead of factoring in the risk and costs of flooding, and the value of nature (and the fish), the NFIP alters our decisions based on false assurances, not accurate economics.

Support NWF’s efforts to defend Puget Sound floodplains, and learn more about similar efforts around the United States.

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National Flood Safety Awareness Week

Flooding — a Necessary Disaster

When left to their natural state flooding is an essential part of any river system, providing habitat for wildlife such as salmon and other fish, caring nutrient rich silt onto the floodplain and creating natural meanders in the river channel. Rivers today have been encroached upon by human development with buildings, homes and roads spilling in and filling up the floodplain. The once naturally flowing rivers are then channelized and maintained through levees and dykes which provide a barrier between these areas and the river and provides a false sense of security for those living, working, and traveling in these areas. Development in floodplains harms people and wildlife. If we stop development in floodplains and begin to restore these areas to their natural state we remove ourselves from the problem by giving rivers the space they need and helping to protect people and wildlife.

Flooding and Wildlife

The National Wildlife Federation has filed numerous lawsuits against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for using the National Flood Insurance Program(NFIP) to subsidize and subsequently promote development in floodplains which negatively impacts Endangered Species such as salmon and orcas in Puget Sound and eight endangered species including Key deer in the Florida Keys among others. Development in floodplains harms wildlife and people. By promoting development in floodplains FEMA is providing not only the means but the need to travel in flood prone areas for work or home. Smart development in regards to floodplains can reduce this danger and can help restore habitat for wildlife.