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Getting Storm Smart and Coast Ready in New Hampshire
By Katie Kent, 2012 Clean Air-Cool Planet Summer Fellow
Just two complete weeks remain in my Climate Fellowship at Clean Air-Cool Planet! Advancing climate preparedness for towns in the NH Seacoast has been a fantastic summer experience. I’m still hard at work on several key projects, and am beginning to really see these projects come to fruition.
Much of my efforts have been concentrated in the small town of Newfields, NH. Conversations about climate impacts with the Planning Board started last winter, and I arrived just in time to kickstart the broader community engagement. From door-to-door visits to local businesses and conversations with elected officials, I gained a better sense of town priorities that helped align the meetings we held with what the residents really wanted. To really immerse myself, I even ran their 5K and mingled at their first annual Summer Solstice Block Party. (That was fun.)
First Public Meeting on Extreme Weather in Newfields, NH.
My project team, including colleagues at UNH Cooperative Extension and UNH SeaGrant, put together a series of three public meetings to discuss the impacts of extreme heat, more storms, and flooding on the town. The workshops drew a broad audience, got lots of town officials talking, and Newfields is moving forward with action items in the areas of stormwater management and emergency preparedness. Some of our efforts are posted right on the homepage of the town website, and featured in the news as well. The project will generate productive tangible outcomes as it continues into the next year.
Storm flooding and power outages in Newfields have motivated residents to get involved.
A second focus area of the summer has been media outreach. I’m developing a slew of resources for local journalists, to make it quick and easy for them to access information about our great work. This includes info about local climate science and NH impacts, local contacts, and maps, videos, and studies to support. The most exciting part of this aspect is writing a series of short human-centered stories about climate’s impacts and the way citizens and town officials are already adapting. Interviewees included a garden-loving Portsmouth resident, homeowners who elevated their houses, and local farmers making changes to sustain their livelihoods. I was also able to partner with Slow Ride Stories, a pair of recent graduates on a motorcycle tour of the northeast talking to individuals about weird weather and climate change. My stories showcase those who lead by example.
Astronomical high tides killed many plants of an avid gardener I interviewed in Portsmouth.
Another exciting product of my fellowship is a readable and well-designed summary of climate science for the Seacoast region and how it impacts our lives. It’s written especially for non-scientists, and focuses on things we all care about like property, clean water, health, and natural resources. The background info is based on an assessment of climate change and its impacts in the Piscataqua/Great Bay watershed that was published late last year by Carbon Solutions New England and the Great Bay Stewards. Developing a way to bring this super-important information to the people who need it has been such a rewarding challenge.
The Coastal Adaptation workgroup engages town officials in Hampton, Hampton Falls, and Seabrook on planning for sea level rise.
With only two weeks to go, I’m in the very thick of everything to bring this whole project together. I’ll write up a final report of lessons learned from work in Newfields that helps the NH Coastal Adaptation Workgroup (CAW), a group coordinating projects of 16 organizations in the NH Seacoast. This will help them develop a model of community engagement to use in neighboring towns. To support the work of CA-CP and further inform their expertise on local climate solutions, I’ll recommend future directions for CAW. Much of the analysis remains to be done, but I know already that hiring another Clean Air – Cool Planet intern to support the work they do will be at the top of the list!
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: adaptation, climate communication, climate fellows, climate in the news, climate preparedness, community action, emergency preparedness, New Hampshire, Newfields, planning, stormwater 
2012-08-01 16:48:52
Source: http://coolplanet.org/2012/08/01/getting-storm-smart-and-coast-ready-in-new-hampshire/
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