The North Carolina Division of Coastal Management has received more than $1.1 million dollars as one of 27 new grants awarded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Emergency Coastal Resilience Fund. The funds will be used to enhance the resilience of North Carolina’s coastal communities and natural resources by supporting local planning and pre-construction activities.
The award will be used for an initiative titled Overcoming Local Barriers to Implementation and Getting to Shovel Readiness, a collaborative project between the division, the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, North Carolina Sea Grant, and The Nature Conservancy. The funds will also support the development of a habitat resilience plan for the division’s Rachel Carson Reserve in Carteret County and engineering for two projects that will protect the reserve and the neighboring Town of Beaufort.
"The Division of Coastal Management is focused on improving the resilience of our communities and natural resources to coastal storms and flooding," said Division Director Braxton Davis. "We are grateful for the financial support for these projects, which will help local governments prioritize and plan for strategic infrastructure investments, and to have shovel-ready projects prepared when future funding opportunities arise."
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Emergency Coastal Resilience Fund supports projects that build coastal resilience by addressing barriers as well as restoration and enhancement programs. The division’s award will be matched with $830,000 in state funding (S.L. 2019-224) that will provide grants to local governments for resiliency planning, engineering, and permitting activities to develop shovel-ready projects.
Additional details about the local government grants, including eligibility, funding levels, allowable activities, and match requirements, will be published to the division website this summer, followed by a request for proposals. Subscribe to the Division of Coastal Management Interested Parties list for updates and announcements.
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