Coastal Connections: The economic benefits of conservation to coastal communities in Maine and California
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About This News Article
Balancing the many demands on coastal areas while protecting natural spaces and the benefits they provide, such as wildlife habitat and clean water, is an ever-present and complex challenge, especially in light of climate change. Local land trusts are on the front lines of this challenge, working with government agencies and others to create a tapestry of protected lands and waters that provide access to nature’s benefits and support coastal economies for future generations.
Christopher Eng is a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Coastal Program, a conservation program that works with partners and local communities to restore and protect natural habitats important to them.
Coastal Connections
The economic benefits of conservation to coastal communities in Maine and California
Explore the Land
Throughout human history, people have been drawn to the coast to build settlements and establish industries. U.S. coastal areas today are home to almost 40% of the nation’s population though they represent less than 10% of its contiguous land mass, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These coastal areas support a population density that is five times greater than the country as a whole, produce $10 trillion in goods and services annually and employ 54.6 million people.
Balancing the many demands on coastal areas while protecting natural spaces and the benefits they provide, such as wildlife habitat and clean water, is an ever-present and complex challenge, especially in light of climate change. Local land trusts are on the front lines of this challenge, working with government agencies and others to create a tapestry of protected lands and waters that provide access to nature’s benefits and support coastal economies for future generations.
In 2017, the Land Trust Alliance and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Coastal Program published “Investing in Nature,” a brochure that introduces the concept that natural places and habitat conservation have economic value to communities. The partnership also worked with the Service’s Economics Branch and individual land trusts to estimate the economic outcomes associated with their habitat conservation work. Here, we share two of these land trust stories.
Preserving a way of life in Maine
In Maine, more than 55% of residents live along the state’s long, rocky coastline. These areas are an important attraction for the more than 12 million tourists that visit Maine annually. NOAA estimates that Maine’s coasts support the employment of 343,000 people, who earn more than $15.8 billion annually.
Maine’s wealth of natural resources has always been important to people. The abundant resources found in the oak and pine forests, clear rivers and bountiful ocean supported generations of people, including the Wabanaki, the predominant tribe that has lived in this part of Maine for thousands of years. Seafood — long a part of Maine’s culture, with historical shell middens indicating that clam harvests sustained the Wabanaki and other local tribes for more than 1,700 years — continues to be important here. Working the sea is a way of life for many Mainers.
In the coastal town of Brunswick, conservationists are helping to protect this way of life by conserving and restoring important habitats. Brunswick is situated between the Androscoggin River and the Atlantic Ocean at the north end of Casco Bay, a designated estuary of national significance. In 2019, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust partnered to protect one of the largest undeveloped properties in Brunswick, establishing the 88-acre Woodward Point Preserve. The land trusts worked together with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to obtain nearly $570,000 from the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program to help fund the purchase.
Maine's next generation of shellfish harvesters
Woodward Point Preserve is adjacent to two commercial shellfish beds that produce some of the largest harvests in Casco Bay, including soft-shell clams. The shellfish beds support the livelihood of harvesters as well as the local businesses, including marinas, equipment suppliers and seafood processers. The 2019 soft-shell clam harvest from those shellfish beds generated a high estimate of $415,000 of stimulus in the local economy. The preserve also supports the long-term viability of at least 17 aquaculture leases and licenses.
“Understanding all the benefits delivered by habitat conservation allows communities to make more informed land use decisions,” says Caitlin Gerber, formerly a regional steward for MCHT. “Places like Woodward Point Preserve are worth protecting.”
Woodward Point Preserve offers people access to nature and outdoor recreation, such as hiking, kayaking, fishing, clamming, birdwatching and cross-country skiing, with as many as 12,000 visitors annually. In addition to fostering a connection with nature, conserving natural places that support outdoor recreation is important to the local economy—with Casco Bay supporting more than $491 million from tourism and recreation.
Protecting public access for local harvesters is important along much of the Maine coast. In June of this year, MCHT worked with Frenchman Bay Conservancy and the Schoodic National Scenic Byway Committee to acquire Long Cove Public Access in Sullivan so clammers and wormers have access to the coastal mud flats. And another property in Jones Cove was donated to FBC for clamming access.
In California, saving farms and salmon
Some of the most iconic landscapes on the Pacific coast are found along Humboldt Bay in Northern California. One of the largest bays along the Pacific Flyway, thousands and thousands of birds seek refuge and nesting on and near its waters. But the region is perhaps best known for its towering redwoods, fern and moss-covered grounds, and the crystal-clear streams that meander through these ancient forests.
Humboldt County’s diverse agricultural industry has an estimated economic value of more than $326 million. However, as important as they are to the culture and economy of the region, agricultural practices have not always been compatible with the natural habitats. In particular, tidal salt marshes declined by 90% in Humboldt Bay due to historical draining of these wetlands for agriculture and development. Though salmon are important to local communities by supporting a $3 billion industry in this region and beyond, the loss of salt marsh and other critical habitats has contributed to the federal listing of Pacific salmon species as endangered.
In 2005 and 2012, the accredited Northcoast Regional Land Trust acquired land from the Freshwater Farms Nursery and established the 74-acre Freshwater Farms Reserve. The reserve includes natural habitats — streams, oxbow ponds, wetlands and forests — as well as 20 acres of land devoted to livestock and agricultural produce.
“Freshwater Farms Reserve is a grand experiment of wetland restoration, sustainable agriculture and public access opportunities,” says Dan Ehresman, NRLT’s executive director.
Humboldt County supports a continuum of habitats from eelgrass beds to salt marshes to freshwater streams and wetlands to mature forests. For generations, Pacific salmon have relied on these habitats to spawn in the freshwater streams and mature in the streams and tidal habitats before swimming out to sea for up to seven years. In return, salmon serve as the foundation for this ecosystem by providing nutrients for the plants and other wildlife.
Since 2005, NRLT has worked with the Coastal Program and others to restore and protect these natural habitats, including tidal salt marshes. By 2019, NRLT completed two projects that restored 53 acres of tidal wetlands on the reserve. These projects were possible through a diverse partnership among the Redwood Community Action Agency, State Coastal Conservancy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Coastal Program and others.
Conor Shea, a Coastal Program hydrologist, helped NRLT to restore the tidal wetlands by preparing restoration plans and supervising construction, which involved breaching a levy, removing a tide-gate, and creating a complex network of seasonal wetlands and permanently flooded freshwater and brackish tidal channels, among other restoration activities. Juvenile salmon will use these tidal habitats to feed on small fish and insects until they are mature enough to head out to sea.
Making a difference
According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the restoration efforts have been successful. Research shows that growth rates for juvenile Coho salmon in the restored wetlands are among the fastest observed anywhere in the Humboldt Bay watershed, which increases their ocean survival. The restored native salt marsh plants have an 80% survivorship, creating important habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife.
The restoration projects successfully created habitat for other rare and federally threatened or endangered species such as the steelhead trout, coastal cutthroat trout, tidewater goby and Lyngbye’s sedge. These projects also restored tidal wetland functions, connectivity between restoration projects in the upper and lower Wood Creek and increased habitat diversity.
This habitat conservation also benefits the local economy. NRLT and partners hired local businesses for many services needed for the reserve’s acquisition and habitat restoration, including legal and construction services. Annual expenditures for conservation activities at the reserve in 2009 generated nearly 60% more stimulus in the local economy — in other words, every dollar spent by the NRLT and partners for services and goods generated an additional 60 cents in the local economy.
Connecting people to the reserve is important for NRLT. The reserve features a restored dairy barn, grazing land, fruit and vegetable production, and a public access nature trail that includes interpretive signs, a canoe launch and a boardwalk that provides up-close observation of native wildlife. The reserve hosts regular field trips to educate students and adults about wetlands and sustainable agriculture and is home of the North Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant Society’s native plant nursery. The reserve also serves as an incubator for local agricultural producers including Freshwater Family Farm and the Redwood Community Action Agency.
“While we are fortunate to live in a region where agricultural production and habitat restoration is strongly tied to the fabric of our communities, thanks to this economic analysis we are also able to demonstrate the significant economic value of conserving and restoring these special places,” says Ehresman.
In partnership with neighboring landowners, area experts and agencies, NRLT is currently working on a third phase of restoration on and just upstream of Freshwater Farms Reserve. The project will restore a natural stream on the neighboring Felt Ranch and connect to the previously restored wetlands on the reserve, creating over 1 mile of salmon habitat, enhancing 30 acres of wetlands and benefitting continued agricultural production on the surrounding properties.
Annual investments in conservation activities at the reserve can generate an additional stimulus of nearly 60% in the local economy.