National Working Waterfronts gathering: seeking innovation in coastal communities

Feb 212013
 

Across the United States, shorelines are getting squeezed.

Expanding populations, industries, and potential uses for coastal areas add up to increasing conflicts over access to waterfronts. Communities both large and small are seeking creative solutions to address evolving waterfront challenges.

The third National Working Waterfronts and Waterways Symposium — scheduled for March 25-28 in Tacoma, Washington — will address these challenges. The event will provide a forum for diverse users to address common dilemmas, and share solutions.

World population numbers are increasing, as are the challenges in accessing shorelines. This national symposium will provide a forum for diverse users to discuss solutions to some of these issues. |Photo: otEcotrust|

World population numbers are increasing, as are the challenges in accessing shorelines, which impacts the maritime, fishing, and boat building industries, among others. |Photo: Ecotrust|

Washington Sea Grant, in coordination with Oregon Sea Grant, is sponsoring the symposium, where planning professionals, elected officials, and interested citizens can learn first-hand about:

  • Economic and social impacts of and on working waterfronts
  • Successful local, regional, state, and federal strategies to address working waterfront issues
  • The future of working waterfronts, including potential impacts of changing uses and climates
  • Keeping waterfront industries commercially viable

One of the panels, moderated by Ecotrust’s VP for Fisheries Ed Backus, will focus on the way community-based fisheries are inherently intertwined with and dependent on access to working waterfronts and waterways.  Panelists will include members of the Community Fisheries Network, a group of 15 community-based fishing organizations and supporting organizations from around the United States that have joined together to address common challenges faced by small-scale fisheries.  The panel will focus on the critical role working waterfronts play in supporting community-based fisheries and how successful fishing businesses can help communities preserve their working waterfronts. By investing in their infrastructure, their businesses, their communities, their deckhands and crew, and by engaging in creative marketing, small-scale fisheries across the country can help ensure there is enough revenue crossing the wharves they rely on to ensure the long-term sustainability of their communities.

Attendees are expected to include local, regional, tribal, and national decision-makers; members of the commercial fishing, marine, and tourism industries; developers and property owners; business owners; community planners; and waterfront advocates.

Following a 2007 Maine Sea Grant report, Access to the Waterfront: Issues and Solutions Across the Nation, the first national symposium was held in 2007 in Norfolk, Virginia, followed by a second one in Portland, Maine, in 2010.

Working waterfronts provide valuable economic and environmental resources to coastal communities. |Photo: Ecotrust|

Working waterfronts provide valuable economic and environmental resources to coastal communities.
|Photo: Ecotrust|

After the Maine conference, team members secured a grant from the federal government to continue building a network. The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) funded a year and a half study to identify strategies, practical methods, and finance mechanisms to address current economic challenges of coastal communities. The project was a collaborative effort among the Island Institute; the Maine, Virginia, and Florida Sea Grant College Programs; the National Sea Grant Law Center; the Urban Harbors Institute; and Coastal Enterprises, Inc.

The final results from the study will be presented at this year’s conference, which begins with a full day of field trips around the Tacoma waterfront and region.

For more information, contact Washington Sea Grant Coastal Management Specialist Nicole Faghin, conference coordinator, at wwaters2013@uw.edu or 206.685.8286 (office)

ioby inspires backyard environmentalism through online community

Nov 022012
 

How does one person change the world?

Global issues like resource depletion, air pollution, and climate change can feel daunting and even paralyzing to an average citizen wanting to somehow help the environment.

To address this feeling of disenfranchisement, three graduates of a master’s program at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies started an environmental organization called ioby in 2008 to ignite collaborative, hands-on neighborhood engagement.

Erin Barnes, Brandon Whitney, and Cassie Flynn created this New York City-based nonprofit as an online space for residents to raise money and connect with resources to implement community change.

Through setting up an account with ioby, an individual or organization can generate funds and locate volunteers. The projects are interesting and varied, ranging from small gardens to bike jewelry to composting toilets. Donors can read project descriptions, view maps of their locations, and receive follow-up information once the projects have been carried out.

Children of the Intervale Green affordable housing development in the South Bronx show the rewards of a rooftop farm, a project that is currently fundraising through ioby.
Photo: ioby

So far, 162 projects have been successfully funded, amounting to a total of $382,803 in donations. The average project donation is $35.

Co-founder and Executive Director Erin Barnes says, “I think contributing $20 to $30 to a project in your neighborhood is a pretty small action (but) when taken in aggregate, that’s where the movement is.”

Donors, on average, live two miles or less from the projects they fund. This aligns with ioby’s mission of deepening civic engagement by providing a space for ideas and resources to connect.

ioby differs from online sites like Kickstarter in its 501(c)3 not-for-profit status, which means donations are tax deductible. Projects must have a specific environmental angle and focus on positive change. Unfunded projects expire after seven months, but ioby has a flexible policy towards budget revisions.

Projects with budgets over $1,000 are charged a $35 fee for the materials and labor that ioby dedicates. A 3% 3rd party credit card processing fee also applies to all projects and NYC projects may use ioby as a fiscal sponsor for a 5% fee. Donors have the option of adding a 20% gratuity, which goes towards ioby’s operating expenses.

Each year sees new trends. “I would say that last year was the year of the chicken. Everyone just wanted to start getting hens,” says Barnes. This year’s trend is tactical urbanism, which she describes as, “using a short term or small scale transformation of public space to demonstrate the way that public space could be transformed permanently.”

One prominent example of this is in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens where there are 14,000 people per acre of open space. Because Jackson Heights only has one park made of concrete, a group of children and parents stepped forward to create the Jackson Heights Green Alliance. In 2010 they used a Play Street Permit from the Department of Transportation to temporarily shut down traffic on 78th Street  for a few weekends, replacing it with a playground. In 2011, the group raised $3,400 to have the street closed and the playground up for a whole summer; this past summer of 2012 they raised $6,000 to do it once again. Because of its success, the street will now be permanently closed to traffic with the playground in place.

The car-free 78th Street
Photo: Jackson Heights Green Alliance

ioby serves as a tool for low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrant communities. While created for and largely focused on New York City, ioby has now gone national, supporting projects across the country. This brings a new set of challenges and goals.

“Because relationship to place is so important to ioby, it will be interesting to see if we need to be in places to really support projects,” says Barnes. She insists the focus will continue to be on small-scale, tangible efforts that will collectively create lasting change.

Erin Barnes believes in fostering a sense of place.

Barnes recently visited Portland to discuss urban planning and crowdsourcing at the Ecodistricts Summit, hosted by the Portland Sustainability Institute. “I think that environmentalists can care about a lot of different things but the thing that makes you feel connected is the place…it’s not that we just we want to protect a certain stream, it’s because that place is important and has value. I think that’s a tie throughout the environmental community,” she says.

Tompkins Conservation strives for biodiversity in South America

Oct 222012
 

Doug Tompkins founded The North Face. Kris Tompkins served as a long-time CEO of Patagonia. It seems as likely a pairing as any.

Now that the two have left the outdoor gear industry, they’ve dedicated themselves to a plethora of conservation efforts in South America. And those are all featured at a new, content-rich hub: Tompkins Conservation.

Kris and Doug Tompkins are working for a new economy.
Photo: Tompkins Conservation website.

Tompkins Conservation initiatives range across a wide spectrum, from park creation to restoration, ecological agriculture to pure activism. All of it is meant to shift the globalized economy towards many place-based, local economies that reflect balanced relationships between humans and nature.

Create

In 1991, Doug purchased the Reñihué Ranch in Chile, with the intention of setting aside 42,000 protected acres. This conservation effort grew over several years into the creation of Pumalín Park, a public-access 800,000-acre nature reserve.

In 2000, Kris founded Conservacion Patagonica, which is working to create Patagonia National Park and has purchased 200,000 acres in the Chacabuco Valley.

South America’s Patagonia is one of the last wild places on earth.
Photo: Conservacion Patagonica.

The Tompkins’ Conservation Land Trust, in partnership with American philanthropist Peter Buckley, purchased 208,000 acres along the Chilean coast, south of Chaiten, in 1994. The parcel expanded and by January 2005 it became the largest privately-owned land to be donated to Chile’s National Park System. Along with surrounding territory, President Ricardo Lagos designated the wilderness as Corcovado National Park. It is currently Chile’s 6th largest park at approximately 726,000 acres, and contains 86 lakes.

Conservation Land Trust has also been working on a proposed Great Iberá Park in Argentina, which would link multiple reserves together to support the region’s ecological integrity. The area abounds with ecotourism opportunities to ensure sound economic gains for the local population.

This map indicates protected areas from Tompkins Conservation efforts.
To learn more about each region, visit the “All Protected Areas” tab of their website.

Restore

Tompkins Conservation identifies the loss of biodiversity as the greatest crisis of our time and emphasizes its undermining of the planet’s ecological health. To tackle these issues, Doug and Kris’ programs have been involved with numerous species and plant restoration projects such as reintroducing locally extinct fauna like the giant anteater, the tapir, the collared peccary, the pampas deer, the ocelote, the giant otter, and the jaguar within the proposed Great Iberá Park.

The Conservation Land Trust is working to reintroduce jaguars within the proposed Great Iberá Park.
Photo: Iberá Project website.

Grow

Other environmental concerns for Tompkins Conservation include the need for pure water, soil care, and investment in local, renewable energy. Agricultural programs in Chile and Argentina involve raising sheep and cattle, producing native forest honey, and growing fruit and vegetables for local consumption.

Act

Along with writer/activist Jerry Mander, Doug established The Foundation for Deep Ecology in 1990, which is based in Sausalito, California, and supports education and advocacy for the natural world through campaigns, publications, and grants.

The Tompkins stress that beauty is intrinsic to our understanding of the natural world. Through recognizing the beauty of natural landscapes, well-designed buildings within parks and communities can be aesthetically pleasing, ecologically responsible and continually inspiring.

Ecodistricts Summit will work on smarter, more resilient cities

Oct 112012
 

The Portland Sustainability Institute will host the 2012 Ecodistricts Summit October 23- 26, as part of the ongoing effort to build smarter, more resilient, and more livable urban districts across the world. Policymakers, planners, developers, business leaders, and financers from around the world will forge solutions to some of the more pressing issues facing metropolitan areas.

Simply put, an Ecodistrict is a neighborhood or district dedicated to sustainability. The Ecodistricts Summit will allow for forward-thinking, collaborative ideas, bringing together some of the world’s best minds to tackle population, pollution, civic engagement, and community development.

Leaders will share tools and strategies for neighborhood-scale sustainability within cities.
[Photo Credit: Sam Beebe, Ecotrust]

 

 

Keynote speaker Carol Coletta is currently the leader of ArtPlace, an American initiative created by banks, foundations, and agencies (like the National Endowment for the Arts), that seeks to transform communities by investing in art and culture. She hosted and produced a nationally syndicated public radio show called Smart City, served as president of CEOs for Cities, and directed the Mayor’s Institute on City Design in Memphis.

Coletta has highlighted the importance of compact, local, intimate communities for creativity and connection.

PoSI is a nonprofit dedicated to building partnerships and incubating solutions that efficiently and strategically address infrastructure, transportation, and energy sectors of urban landscapes. This past spring, leaders from Austin, Bellingham, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Guadalajara (Mexico), Mountain View, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Vancouver (B.C.) met at Ecotrust for the first-ever Ecodistricts Institute to discuss neighborhood-scale planning in their respective cities.

To connect with the summit on social channels follow @pdxinstitute on Twitter and Facebook with hashtages #ecodistrictssummit and #greencities.

 

 

How Washington can support fishing communities

May 112012
 

Lately, national fisheries policy makers have left local fishing communities hanging.

At issue is how to ensure responsible community-based fishermen — without huge financial backing — remain fishing, as the nation downsizes the number of boats on the water to protect fishing stocks.

Fishing communities need clear guidance from Washington.

Last November, a bi-partisan, bi-coastal, and bicameral group of eight members of Congress wrote a letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), requesting that the agency provide guidance on the implementation of the National Catch Share Policy  to the regional councils that manage our nation’s fisheries. The National Catch Share Policy is guiding how the councils divvy up the allowable catch on fisheries across the country — from cod to halibut to West Coast rockfish — among different fishermen.

 In most cases, those shares go to boats that historically caught particular fish, but they are tradeable and often end up in the hands of the highest bidder.  The members of Congress asked for agency guidance on options to help local fishing communities adapt to catch share programs, including approaches to implement the community provisions in sections of national fisheries law that would enable fishing communities to form Regional or Community Fishing Associations that would help local fishermen retain fishing access and jobs.

 Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA), who represents California’s 1st Congressional District along the state’s northern coast, reiterated some of this letter in a March 2012 article in Pacific Fishing Magazine, calling for agency guidance on the implementation of the same community provisions and for strategies to consider input from fishing communities at the earliest stages of catch share program development.

 NMFS finally issued a response (pdf) to the congressional letter this past March, but unfortunately it is a response with little substance.  NMFS points to other activities (for instance, their work on electronic monitoring) that are not relevant to the request for guidance on national fisheries law’s community provisions.

 They say they have taken “a number of steps,” but do not describe what those are or will be.  They cite work on community efforts for the Pacific Groundfish Trawl catch share program, but the Pacific Council, which manages Oregon,Washington and California waters, abandoned efforts to set criteria for Community Fishing Associations to participate in that program.  They mention the proceedings from a January 2011 Catch Shares & Commercial Fishing Communities Workshop, yet the main outcome there was several clear recommendations to NMFS to provide guidance as to how communities can go about becoming a Regional or Community Fishing Association — guidance that communities are still waiting on.

 In the absence of clear agency leadership on this issue, communities are beginning to define what the community provisions supported by national law mean for them.

 The Community Fisheries Network was launched last month by Ecotrust, the Island Institute of Rockland, Maine and 13 community fishing and development organizations on both the West and East coasts.  Network members have developed standards for the governance of community-based fishing organizations to, in part, enable those communities to qualify to hold catch shares and  maintain community access to fisheries.

 The network is also set up to share information among fishermen, fishing communities, scientists and others, in order to improve the stewardship of marine ecosystems, to build up local and regional fishing economies, and to bring renewed energy and vitality to waterfront communities.

 Individually, members have taken progressive steps along these lines, whether it’s establishing their own seafood brands, pushing for marine protected areas in local waters or successfully lobbying for small boats and artisanal fishermen in fisheries policy. As these efforts multiply across the nation, community-based fishermen will ensure that catch shares held by communities are a sound, lasting investment in the country’s working waterfronts.

 Now it is up to national policy makers to support these communities.

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