CSO Newsletter
The Coastal States Organization represents the nation’s Coastal States, Territories, and Commonwealths on ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resource issues.
Spotlight on Coastal Management:
Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month
September 15th through October 15th is National Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month! This month is focused on celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Many Hispanic and Latinx people and communities are integrally tied to the coasts. This month CSO is highlighting the work of Hispanic and Latinx coastal management experts and projects led by state and territory coastal zone management programs to engage Hispanic and Latinx communities and protect and restore their coastal resources.

Learn more about National Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month and the work of coastal programs and professional here.
In the States and Regions
Gulf Coast
This Louisiana Tribe Lost Most of its Homes to Hurricane Ida. ‘This Was the Big One.’
When Theresa and Donald Dardar returned to their home in Pointe-Aux-Chenes, Louisiana, to survey the damage from Hurricane Ida, the couple saw what looked like a war zone. The Dardars are members of the Pointe-Au-Chien indigenous tribe, and 68 out of their community’s 80 homes were destroyed. The Biloxi-Chitamacha-Choctaw tribe, neighbors of the Point-au-Chien and relatives of the Mississippi bands of Biloxi, Chitmacha and Choctaw, lost all their homes on Isle de Jean Charles. Weeks after the storm, they are still without electricity or water, and most of the tribe has left the coast. Read more

The Karankawa Were Said to be Extinct. Now They’re Reviving Their Culture — and Fighting to Protect Their Ancestors’ Land
On the sandy shore of the Gulf, a small group formed a circle and began to sing through the August heat. Some played ceremonial drums, and two others held a large painted canvas that read, “SAVE CORPUS CHRISTI BAY.” Of the dozen people who prayed, sang and spoke in the circle that day, three women were representing a people that most Texas history books claim are extinct. They’re part of a small but growing group of Indigenous people who call themselves Karankawa Kadla — “kadla” means culturally mixed, and Karankawa is the name of a people who, for several centuries, controlled a more than 300-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast shore from approximately present-day Galveston Bay south to Corpus Christi Bay. After finding one another through social media and the internet, they’ve come together just as an oil company is moving to expand its facility on a patch of coastal land in an area where their ancestors lived — and where thousands of Karankawa artifacts still lie. The result is a new fight in the old battle to defend their history, customs and land. Read more
East Coast and Caribbean
If You Have Flood Insurance, The Price Is Likely Going Up. What That Means In NC
Starting this month , anyone buying a flood insurance policy will see a shift in prices due to a set of changes the Federal Emergency Management Agency has called Risk Rating 2.0.
“The way that the rates are actually set is long overdue for an overhaul and has not been updated in decades, so Risk Rating 2.0 really brings the whole insurance system into the 21st century with updates that are based on more granular data about an individual property,” Laura Lightbody, director of The Pew Charitable Trust’s flood-prepared communities initiative, told The News & Observer. FEMA has touted Risk Rating 2.0 as marking a significant shift in how flood insurance premiums are set by accounting for a number of property-specific factors instead of setting prices solely based on the zone where a property sits. Read more

Armed with Dusty Old Maps, Activists Fight to Reclaim Beach Access in Weekapaug
Ben Weber started working for his father's construction company when he was a teenager. So a few years later, when a security guard at Fenway Beach in Weekapaug tried to tell him that he wasn't supposed to be there because it was private, he knew the solution was to find a public easement. Weber, then 20, went to Westerly Town Hall and came away with a map that he held on to for years. In his recollection, it showed that the state owned a section of the cove that was shaped like a slice of pie, with the widest part providing ample room to throw down a towel on the dry sand. Because it was public land, the Weekapaug Fire District, which owns the rest of the beach, couldn't eject him. He eventually lost that map, something he's still upset about, and he's never found another one like it. But more than two decades later, he's using that same strategy to fight for the public's right to access the shoreline in Westerly. Read more
Great Lakes
Cleveland City Planning Commission Approves $300 Million ‘CHEERS’ Vision for New Lakefront Park Areas on City’s East Side
The Cleveland City Planning Commission on Friday unanimously approved a plan developed by Cleveland Metroparks and other public agencies to use clean, recycled sediment dredged from the Cuyahoga River to create 76 acres of new parkland between the East 55th Street Marina and Gordon Park on the city’s East Side.
The project, which could cost roughly $300 million, would include 150 acres of land and water. Wetlands, hills, lawns, numerous trails, and an area to launch paddle craft are all part of the vision. Read more

Lake Superior Reserve Debuts New Boat Launch
After two years of work, a new boat launch is complete on the Pokegama Bay in Superior. The Lake Superior Reserve held a ribbon cutting ceremony to present the new launch Wednesday where a grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management program, along with contributions from the Reserve System and City of Superior made this $200,000 upgrade possible. Leaders hopes that this new launch will be more useful for educational programs as well as recreation. Read more
West Coast and Pacific
Massive Oil Spill Sends Crude onto Orange County Beaches, Killing Birds, Marine Life
Crews raced Sunday to contain the damage from a major oil spill off the Orange County coast that left crude spoiling beaches, killing fish and birds and threatening local wetlands.
The spill, first reported Saturday, originated from a pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly. The failure caused at least 126,000 gallons of crude to spill into coastal waters creating a slick that spanned about 8,320 acres— larger than the size of Santa Monica—and sent oil to the shores of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach early Sunday. Oil from the spill also infiltrated Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre ecological reserve in Huntington Beach that is home to dozens of species of birds. Read more

Low Oxygen Levels Along Pacific Northwest Coast A ‘Silent’ Climate Change Crisis
Nearly two decades ago, fishers discovered an odd occurrence off the coast of Oregon. They were pulling up pots of dead or lethargic crabs. At first they suspected a chemical spill or a red tide. But instead, they learned, dangerously low levels of dissolved oxygen in the ocean water were to blame. The crabs had suffocated. These swaths of hypoxic areas have surfaced every summer on Pacific Northwest shores since it was first recorded in 2002. They are spurred by naturally occurring coastal upwellings and algae blooms, exacerbated by climate change, said Francis Chan, director of the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies at Oregon State University. Read more
Events & Webinars
Announcements
Upcoming NOAA Office for Coastal Management Trainings
NOAA's Office for Coastal Management regularly offers on demand and instructor-led trainings through the Digital Coast Academy. Upcoming trainings include:
  • Seven Best Practices for Risk Communication, October 28, 2021, 2 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern. Register here.
  • Coastal Adaptation Planning Essentials, November 30-December 2, 2021, 1 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern. Register here.

Today, Sept. 30, 2021, the fiscal year 2021 application period opened for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant programs. There is $1 billion available for the BRIC program, and $160 million available for the FMA program. The application period closes on Jan. 28, 2022. Learn more here.

New FEMA Tribal Mitigation Planning Course Available
FEMA’s IS-350 Tribal Mitigation Planning is a new independent study course now available free of charge to all users through the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) website. IS-350 provides a full overview of the benefits of mitigation planning and the planning process for Tribal Nations. It is based on FEMA’s Tribal Mitigation Plan Review Guide (2017) and Tribal Mitigation Planning Handbook (2019). The course provides information to prepare and implement a tribal hazard mitigation plan. The course is intended for tribal government officials, planners and other partners involved in tribal hazard mitigation planning. Learn more here.

Climate Change in the West: Submit Your Photos
Calling all students in 5th through 12th grade! Send in your photos showing how climate change has impacted you or your community in the West before November 15, 2021. Winning submissions will be shared with NOAA climate experts who will develop a written response about the climate impact or change captured in the photo, and both the photos and responses will be shared on the NOAA Western Region website. Applicants from across the U.S. are eligible, but photos must be taken in one of these western states: Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. Learn more and submit your photos here

NOAA’s Community Resilience Education Grant Competition Now Open
announce the NOAA Environmental Literacy Program’s new funding opportunity for community resilience education. Through environmental literacy, projects will build resilience to extreme weather and climate change. This funding opportunity is soliciting requests of $250,000 - $500,000 for two types of projects through separate competitive priorities. The first deadline for pre-applications is November 1, 2021. Learn more here.

NOAA Office of Education 2022 Undergraduate Scholarship Applications Now Open
The Hollings Scholarship Program and the EPP/MSI Undergraduate Scholarship Program are accepting applications until Monday, January 31, 2022. The Hollings Scholarship Program provides successful undergraduate applicants with awards that include academic assistance (up to $9,500 per year) for two years of full-time study and a 10-week, full-time paid ($700/week) internship at a NOAA facility during the summer. The EPP/MSI Undergraduate Scholarship provides funds for two years of undergraduate study to rising junior undergraduate students majoring in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields that directly support NOAA's mission. Participants conduct research at a NOAA facility during two paid summer internships. Since 2001, 219 students have completed the program and over 75% go on to graduate school.

Coastal Management and Digital Coast Fellowship
Any U.S. citizen who will complete a master’s or other advanced degree at an accredited U.S. university between August 1, 2020, and July 31, 2022, is eligible to apply for the Coastal Management and Digital Coast Fellowships. A variety of degrees are applicable to the fellowship because the projects are new and different each year. Previous fellows have had degrees in environmental studies, natural resource management, marine affairs, marine science, geology, public affairs, communications, social sciences, and regional land management. The most important prerequisite is an interest in coastal issues. Application packages must be submitted to the Sea Grant program office in the state where you earned your degree by January 21, 2022. Learn more about the Fellowships and how to apply here.

Seminar Series: Perspectives On Urban Flood Resilience
Urban flooding is of particular concern as human populations concentrate in urban areas, which are often located in coastal or flood prone areas. CUAHSI is hosting a seminar series which brings together scholars from a variety of perspectives and fields to share their research on urban flooding, recommendations for how to lessen future impacts or approach challenges, and highlight areas of needed research and collaboration. This series seeks to reach scientists at all stages of their careers, policy makers, and urban flood practitioners to establish connections between members of different fields, shed light on interdisciplinary research and methodologies, and to define calls to action for both research and practice. Join the series Wednesdays this fall from Now - October 13th at 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET. Learn more here.

Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship
It’s an exciting two-year fellowship program that will place one graduate student at each of the 29 national estuarine research reserves. Through a research project, fellows address a key reserve management need to help scientists and communities understand coastal challenges that may influence future policy and management strategies. The research reserves represent the apex of estuary science. At these coastal sites, fieldwork, research, and community engagement come together to create the scientific advances that change our communities and our world. Applications are due December 10, 2021. Learn more and apply here.
Job Openings

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The views expressed in articles referenced here are those of the authors and do not represent or reflect the views of CSO.

If you have a news item or job posting to include in future CSO Newsletters, please send an email to: rkeylon@coastalstates.org with a subject line: "Newsletter Content". Please include the information to be considered in the body of the email.
Please note: CSO reserves final decision regarding published newsletter content and may not use all information submitted.
Coastal States Organization | 50 F Street. NW, Suite 570, Washington, DC 20001 | 202-508-3860 | cso@coastalstates.org | www.coastalstates.org