Visionary Ideas for Restoring America's Estuaries

Over 40% of Americans—that’s 130 million people—live along the coasts of the United States. That high concentration of people is putting a lot of pressure on sensitive coastal ecosystems. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, the new National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, are joined by Daniel Hayden, President and CEO of Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE). RAE, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting and restoring bays and estuaries along the coasts, has a bold vision for the future where EWN and nature-based solutions play a critical role. RAE was founded in 1995, in part to bring together the coastal restoration conservation community. Starting with 10 members, the organization has grown significantly. In December 2022, RAE held its 11th Coastal and Estuarine Summit in New Orleans. With over 1300 attendees representing a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations that work in coastal restoration and protection, this shows the growing interest in protecting and restoring our coasts. An estuary is a place where one body of water meets another, typically a river into a bay or ocean, or a river into a large lake. The East, West, and Gulf Coasts are all home to estuaries, as well as the Great Lakes region. As Daniel describes, “These areas play a critical role in flood and storm surge protection, as well as ecological functions, such as providing habitat for fish and wildlife.” Daniel joined RAE in 2020, with a commitment to move the organization forward on its 2019 Strategic Plan while building support for increased funding for conservation and getting more people involved in protecting and restoring estuaries. Personally, he wanted to create a platform for thought leadership. “There’s a lot of different benefits we can communicate about, and that’s really exciting because we can bring many different communities together around something that’s very important.” Environmental justice, social equity, and community empowerment are at the forefront of RAE’s work. Daniel discusses RAE’s responsiblity to ensure that positive investments go into underrepresented and underserved communities. Jeff notes how RAE’s focus aligns with EWN and the Biden Administration’s Justice 40 Initiative: “The federal government has made it a goal that 40% of overall benefits of federal investments will flow towards disadvantaged, marginalized communities for things like clean energy and affordable housing, cleaning up areas that have been contaminated over the years, and of course, climate change.” Looking to the future, the opportunities for RAE and EWN to work together are “tremendous.” “Thinking about the amount of infrastructure that the country needs to maintain, rebuild and expand over the coming decades,” Daniel says, “we really need to be very thoughtful about how we invest. It’s not rebuilding what we had but making sure that infrastructure reflects the climate and the economy we want to have for the future.” Jeff adds, “As we think about climate change and the uncertainty associated with a 10-year or 20-year time horizon, we need to offer communities, stakeholders and decision makers the best available information and tools to make informed decisions. This is an important role for EWN. And, coming back to the RAE Summit, we’ll continue to support this incredible venue for sharing best practices and technologies. It is key to advancing nature-based solutions.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/ Related Links • Jeff King at LinkedIn • Daniel Hayden at LinkedIn