Image: Construction of a wildlife underpass on Highway 13 North of Craig, courtesy of Colorado Parks & Wildlife.
Working with Nature to Create Resilience
The United States Department of Interior’s (DOI) defines a nature-based solution as “an action that incorporates natural features and processes to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use, and manage natural or modified ecosystems to address socio-environmental challenges while providing measurable co-benefits to benefit both people and nature.” Nature-based solutions recognize and leverage the ingenuity of nature to help the environment while simultaneously providing community benefits like lower cost than traditional infrastructure, creation of green jobs, increases to property value, improvements to public health, and reduced loss of life.
While many Coloradans are familiar with common practices like wildfire fuels management, revegetation, and wetland restoration, there are also many nature-based applications within the built environment, like artificial wetlands used for water treatment systems, urban forestry, urban greening and community gardens to combat extreme heat, mitigate runoff, and increase food access. Colorado has also seen an increase in wildlife crossing structures to improve habitat connectivity and reduce vehicle-animal collisions, including a massive upcoming project between Denver and Colorado Springs, funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program.
Some Cool Examples
Leave it to Beaver: Beaver population and habitat management is a common practice in riverine habitats, with beaver dams providing many known benefits including filtering pollution, creating wetlands, storing groundwater, preventing floods, and sequestering carbon. University of Minnesota researchers are finding that beaver-dammed habitats are particularly effective as wildfire refugia, or areas of “wildfires that burn at low intensity or don’t burn at all, and are where animals and plants are much more likely to survive.” The dams and canals beavers construct slow water down and spread it out – creating wetlands. In a paper published earlier this year, she and her co-authors found that 89% of such waterways constitute refugia while just 60% of undammed waterways do.
A Local Initiative: The City of Boulder is mitigating the impacts of climate change with the Cool Boulder campaign which “forms partnerships between the city, local organizations and communities to address the climate crisis and biodiversity loss through nature-based climate action.” The campaign is tied together by three action areas: Pollinator Pathways, Connected Canopies, and Absorbent Landscapes, and encourages and supports the community in taking action. The Cool Boulder website provides information, resources, and involvement opportunities.
Your Turn
Planning and implementing nature-based solutions to make your community a safer, healthier, cooler, and more pleasant place to live takes know-how and funding.
- DOLA’s Climate Resilience Challenge, an initiative of the Energy/Mineral Impact Assistance Fund Grant (EIAF) program provides funding for plans and projects that mitigate and adapt to climate change in order to increase community-level resilience, and encourages bold projects that move forward cutting edge climate work. The next round of funding opens November 1, 2024.
- The upcoming Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) programs support Colorado communities in reducing their long-term risks from natural hazards by assisting local officials in implementing natural disaster mitigation projects. The priorities of these two programs include, but are not limited to, enhancing climate resilience and adaptation, incorporating nature-based solutions, promoting equity and incentivizing natural hazard risk reduction activities. Sub-applicants must first submit a Notice of Interest (NOI) to the Colorado Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) for a review process before submitting a full application through FEMA Grants Outcome (FEMA GO). The DHSEM accepts NOIs year-round and encourages applicants to submit their NOIs early. Please contact Deputy State Hazard Mitigation Officer, Emily Drosselmeyer for more information.
- FEMA also provides guidance on nature-based solutions including examples and strategies, and federal funding opportunities, as does the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Want guidance on risk assessment and hazard mitigation planning through land use solutions like stream buffers and setbacks and landscaping ordinances? Check out PlanningforHazards.com.