Groundswell Coastal Ecology (Groundswell) makes places better for nature and people. Their vision is for a world where thriving natural ecosystems are connected to vibrant communities through cultural practice of hands-on stewardship. They do this by partnering with land managers, agencies, stakeholder groups, and the public to identify, prioritize, plan, and implement nature-based solutions to ecological problems.  Groundswell was founded during a bike ride along the Monterey Bay. With his 5-year-old daughter perched on the handlebar seat, Dr. Bill Henry, saw a clear need for better stewardship of our parks. A few successful ecological restoration test plots led to larger projects and soon Groundswell was founded to engage people in enhancing our public spaces for the benefit of all including future generations. 

Creating impact through partnership 

As a recipient of the 2022 Building Climate Resilient Parks Grant, Groundswell is launching their Monterey Bay Living Shorelines Program to identify and prioritize coastal sites that are appropriate for implementation of living shorelines. Living shorelines are a nature-based solution to address problems of sea level rise that can enhance the quality and biodiversity of shorelines, as well as reduce flooding and coastal erosion. Implementation of living shorelines benefit State Parks by protecting resources, facilities, and coastal access ways. This nature-based solution has been identified as a preferred adaptive solution to coastal climate change problems in the Monterey Bay, however, there are currently no established programs to realize these priorities. 

Groundswell is creating a geodatabase of State Parks sites ranked to prioritize implementation of living shorelines projects. Characteristics include coastal accessibility, visitor constituency, facilities, biodiversity, estimated cost, and more. To help create this geodatabase Groundswell is partnering with existing regional living shorelines practitioners, community representatives, educators, interpreters, and scientists in the attribution and ranking process. 

The Monterey Bay Living Shorelines Program focuses on state parks in and adjacent to communities entitled to environmental justice, which includes communities with a Cal EnviroScreen greater than 80%. This work will increase the capacity of Monterey Bay communities entitled to environmental justice to engage in the process of building resilient coasts by providing stipends to community members to participate in planning and learning how to help state parks adapt to the impacts of climate change. Additionally, this program will accelerate implementation of new living shorelines and expand existing living shorelines projects. These projects will provide multiple benefits to the surrounding communities, including protecting park access ways, enhancing water quality, and increasing coastal resilience to flooding and erosion. 

The benefit for parks 

The resulting report will serve as a guidance document for leveraging the next phase of funding and implementation of living shorelines projects in state parks along the Monterey Bay coast. To learn more about Groundswell Coastal Ecology and their Monterey Bay Living Shorelines Program, watch the video below.