Marin County launched a Coastal Communities Working Group (CCWG) in early 2020 composed of EAC, Surfrider, the Alliance of West Marin Villages, and additional village association representatives with the goals of providing local, community input on hazard and climate adaptation planning initiatives and projects in West Marin, for the members to be liaisons between the County and their respective communities, and for members to gain expertise and integrate knowledge from each project to inform its review of future planning processes. This builds on the County’s C-SMART (Collaboration: Sea-level Marin Adaptation Response Team) process that identified vulnerabilities and potential solutions to the County’s coastal climate challenges.

Three County projects are currently the focus of the CCWG: 1) Stinson Beach Nature-Based Adaptation Feasibility Study, 2) Tomales Bay Living Shoreline Feasibility Study, and 3) Local Coastal Program (LCP) environmental hazards policy amendments.

We are facing a climate emergency, and the ocean is a powerful source of solutions that have the potential to provide a fifth of the greenhouse gas emission reductions needed globally to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. Kelp forests and our coastal environments are being hit hard by climate change and other habitat loss impacts and need protection to help combat the climate crisis and drawdown greenhouse gas emissions.

Blue (aquatic) carbon is a very valuable resource to sequester carbon found in salt marshes, eelgrass beds, and tidal wetlands. Restoring blue carbon ecosystems could remove about 0.5% of current global emissions, with co-benefits for local ecosystems and livelihoods. Earlier this month, Oregon released a new Climate Plan that is the first in the United States to account for the blue carbon benefits of coastal habitats.

Marin County Exploring Sea Level Rise Adaptation & Drafting Hazards Development Guidance

Protecting our Coastal Systems to Drawdown Greenhouse Gases

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