1. HARDWORKING WETLANDS
neighborhoods stand on former wet- lands that, if left undeveloped, might have protected the rest of the shore- line from the storm’s worst effects. In the past century, roughly 80 percent of the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary’s freshwater wetlands have been plowed and filled to make way for homes—that’s 224,000 acres of wetland destruction, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But public perception of wetlands
A
is starting to shift. Once considered worthless wasteland, marshes and estuaries are increasingly regarded as a valuable resource. Wetlands can reduce a storm’s impact by mitigating
mong the hard truths of Superstorm Sandy is this: many of the hardest-hit
storm surge, absorbing urban runoff, and preventing pollutants from mov- ing out to sea. New York Harbor’s undeveloped
wetlands proved their worth in Sandy by buffering sensitive areas, according to Marit Larson, director of wetlands and riparian restoration for the City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation. “Our wetland ecosystems per-
formed excellently,” reports Larson. “On erodible slopes where there was no wetland, we saw more pronounced deterioration. But the slopes with several-hundred feet of wetlands before them remained stable.” Other flood-prone communities
are reintroducing wetlands in pursuit of the same benefits seen in New
York. In Louisiana, the $50 billion Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast will gradually re- store a series of historic marshes and beaches over the next five decades. It’s an expensive undertaking, but officials say it’s a small price to pay to prevent the loss of life and property seen after Hurricane Katrina. The Trust for Public Land is complementing the wetland restora- tion on New Orleans’s urban fringe with green infrastructure inside the city itself. The organization is creat- ing a GIS Greenprint to identify the areas of the city most likely to flood and using it to encourage the develop- ment of new parks that capture rain and floodwater.
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