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Delaware nonprofit launches climate resilience program in southern Delaware

Slaughter beach in July 2022.
Paul Kiefer
/
Delaware Public Media
Long term, the programs will implement nature-based solutions in the name of climate resilience.

The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays launched the South Delaware Coastal Resilience Program.

The program takes a multipronged approach, including education, research, restoration, outreach, public policy and advocacy.

CIB’s science and restoration team data coordinator Melina Vella said that’s because things can’t just happen in one department.

“And with that, there is a lot of cooperation that has to happen with organizations all across southern Delaware to get this going,” Vella said.

The program is still in its infancy. Those involved in the program are participating in community conversations and collecting surveys to gauge what locals want to see from SDCRP.

Long term, they expect to implement nature-based solutions which use natural features or processes to promote resilience, such as promoting oyster reefs and creating pollinator gardens.

But CIB’s director of science and restoration Meghan Noe Fellows said the program hopes to go beyond those strategies.

“What does this look like for southern Delaware? And this is greener, healthier communities, more resilient to very dynamic weather patterns and coastal tidal effects,” Noe Fellows said. “We envision, when we have the community input through the conversations, that this is just kind of a shift in the mentality of where and how we develop and move things forward.”

Noe Fellows said she’s using her background in government to inform her position with CIB, and her goal is to be transparent with the new program.

“There's often this disconnect that governments come with a solution already in hand and that they haven't listened to what the community wanted,” Noe Fellows said. “We're taking it to the public before we even have those really in-depth, big picture conversations.”

Vella said climate change is everyone’s problem, but Delaware is particularly at risk.

“It's just so critical in Delaware and in the Inland Bays because we are so low lying,” Vella said. “We have the lowest mean elevation across the state. We are sinking into ourselves, into the ocean, as well as the ocean is rising. And so those effects are compounded with one another.”

The program is still in its listening phase and has a survey open for public comment now.

With degrees in journalism and women’s and gender studies, Abigail Lee aims for her work to be informed and inspired by both.

She is especially interested in rural journalism and social justice stories, which came from her time with NPR-affiliate KBIA at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo.

She speaks English and Russian fluently, some French, and very little Spanish (for now!)
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