Hurricane Harvey’s devastating impact on the Gulf Coast vividly illustrates the vulnerability of coastal communities. While the heroic efforts of the rescue operation snag most of the headlines, there is an unsung hero in the story: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — NOAA.
Through NOAA’s weather monitoring and continual updates, residents of the Gulf Coast were able to prepare for Harvey’s landfall, helping to decrease the number of lives tragically lost in the storm. Out on the Washington Coast, NOAA also works to protect our communities through up-to-date forecasts that inform us of approaching storms, and they perform the critical operation of our tsunami warning system.
The weather programs are only one branch of the NOAA operation. The agency oversees myriad programs that increase the health and productivity of our coastal communities, our economies and the incredible ecological habitats we call home. Programs responsible for shoreline planning, coastal zone management, monitoring ocean conditions critical to our shellfish industry, as well as work to restore our pacific salmon runs all fall under NOAA’s jurisdiction.
It is no question that salmon and habitat restoration projects on the Washington Coast play a central role in the coastal economy and way of life. For every $1 million spent on watershed restoration, over $2 million is generated in total economic activity. The Coast Salmon Partnership — with membership from coastal counties, cities, tribes, ports, businesses, watershed councils and conservation groups — works with the NOAA-administered Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund to restore and protect Washington State’s strongest remaining wild salmon populations and the watersheds they call home.
Since 2009, restoration work in Washington’s coastal region has opened more than 715 miles of habitat to spawning, rearing and migration. This restoration activity supports a broad range of family-wage jobs — local contractors, equipment operators, surveyors and many more — in an area with unemployment rates among some of the highest in the country. It also improves the resiliency of our transportation infrastructure. While we do not have to deal with hurricanes on our coast, we do have to withstand some rough storms, including atmospheric river events. Salmon-friendly roads and bridges are more likely to endure these heavy weather events.
Despite the agency’s critical importance to coastal economies and salmon, the White House and House of Representatives are proposing between $700 million and $900 million in cuts to the NOAA budget. These will set back salmon recovery and hit coastal communities hard.
Thankfully Reps. Derek Kilmer and Jaime Herrera Beutler, and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, have all spoken out against cuts to the NOAA programs our communities rely on. We need to speak up for the coast and help them to rally enough support in Congress to head off this disastrous proposal. An investment in salmon restoration and NOAA is an investment in the future of Washington’s coastal communities.
Jessica Helsley, executive director of Coast Salmon Partnership, lives in Hoquiam.
