Wetland

• Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, commended the Capital Regional District on Vancouver Island for its contribution to conservation in Canada.
• They have officially recognized all 33 of the regional parks under their jurisdiction in the Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database.
• The Capital Regional District is a trailblazer for reporting their locally-protected and conserved areas directly in the national database.
• The Capital Regional District facilitates regional decision-making on issues that transcend municipal boundaries, including regional parks and recreation facilities, the regional water supply, solid waste, and wastewater treatment.

• Flooding is the costliest type of natural disaster in the U.S., responsible for about 90% of the damage from natural disasters each year.
• Yet, much of the aging infrastructure meant to protect U.S. communities is in bad shape and, in some cases, failing.
• But there’s a problem: New infrastructure planning frequently relies on historical flood patterns for its benchmarks rather than forecasts of changing risks as the climate warms.
• As federal funding for infrastructure rolls in, communities run the risk of spending millions of dollars on systems that weren’t built to handle the flood risks ahead.

Infrastructure is failing

• Much of the nation’s flood control infrastructure was designed for 20th century storms and flooding.
• And in many cases, stormwater systems, levees and dams are now approaching the end of their useful life, or are already well beyond it.
• The dams’ owner had lost its hydropower license for the Edenville Dam two years earlier, in part for failing to widen its spillway for safety.

Old data won’t protect against future flood risk

• Often, new infrastructure is designed using historical data, such as past high-water marks and storm intensity, to determine future flood risk.
• Many still rely on decades-old data and fail to consider the rising risks from climate change.
• There are alternatives that communities can use to help align their planning with a more likely future.
• Researchers working with the nonprofit First Street Foundation developed some of the first U.S. flood maps that account for future flood risk at the local level.
• With people continuing to build in high-risk areas, the costs and number of people at risk rise even higher.

What can communities do?

• Protecting communities starts with changing the status quo, including incorporating climate change into infrastructure planning and developing innovative policies for better flood management.
• Known as managed retreat, it is gaining interest, particularly in communities at risk from sea level rise, but it’s also controversial.
• But for many communities to remain unchanged, building and maintaining large-scale infrastructure will be necessary.
• Changes won’t happen overnight, but taking proactive measures and supporting innovative solutions will benefit communities in the long run and is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

• EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., May 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE: WGO), a leading outdoor lifestyle product manufacturer, and The Nature Conservancy, today announced a new strategic partnership to promote conservation and protect the outdoors.
• The reforestation initiative aims to plant trees on previously forested acres throughout Winnebago Industries’ headquarters state of Minnesota.
• The work will be focused in Florida where the Winnebago Industries owned boatbuilder, Chris-Craft, has its manufacturing operations.
• “Programs like these are helping The Nature Conservancy ensure we have healthy oceans, freshwater and lands, and tackle carbon emissions.”
  Environmental sustainability and climate resilience are critical to the long-term sustainability of Winnebago Industries’ business.

• Silicon Ranch Corporation and its contractor IEA Inc. hit with $135.5 million verdict
  SRC has developed over 160 solar panel facilities across the country, many of them built by IEA.
• SRC and IEA cleared and mass graded some 1,000 acres without first installing adequate erosion and sediment control measures.
• "That was the main problem with the Lumpkin site," said Plaintiffs' lead counsel James E. Butler, Jr. of Butler Prather LLP.
• The jury imposed $25 million in punitive damages against SRC, $50 million in punitive damages against IEA Inc., and $50 million against IEA's wholly owned subsidiary IEA Constructors, LLC.