Administration announces $12.6M in coastal resilience grants

As part of the Commonwealth’s celebration of Climate Week in mid-September, the Baker-Polito administration announced the award of $12.6 million in grants to support 27 local planning and shoreline management projects to aid coastal communities in preparing for severe storms and the impacts of climate change, including storm surge, flooding, erosion and sea level rise.

The funding, provided through the Office of Coastal Zone Management in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, was awarded to Barnstable, Boston, Brewster, Chatham, Chilmark, Cohasset, Duxbury Beach Reservation Inc., Gosnold, House of Seven Gables Settlement Association, Ipswich, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Marblehead, Marshfield, Mass Audubon, Mattapoisett, Nahant, New Bedford, Orleans, Plymouth, Provincetown, Salem, Scituate, Wareham, Wellfleet, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Additional municipal partners of these projects include Braintree, Chilmark, Dennis, Duxbury, Eastham, Falmouth, Truro and Winthrop.

“Coastal communities in Massachusetts face increasing risks to infrastructure, buildings, and natural resources due to coastal storms and climate change,” Gov. Charlie Baker said at a Sept. 19 press event in Boston. “We commend local leaders for their forward-thinking planning and action with these Coastal Resilience Grant projects.”

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said the Coastal Resilience Grant Program provides valuable technical and financial assistance supporting important long-term planning, infrastructure adaptations, and shoreline restoration efforts “to improve the resilience of our coastline.”

The Coastal Resilience Grant Program supports local efforts to evaluate vulnerabilities to climate impacts, increase community awareness and understanding of these issues, plan for changing conditions, redesign vulnerable community facilities and infrastructure, and restore shoreline systems through non-structural approaches. Grants may fund feasibility assessments, public outreach, design, permitting, construction, and monitoring of projects that enhance or create natural buffers to erosion and flooding.

Since 2015, the administration has invested $35.7 million in 182 coastal resilience improvement projects through the program.

More information about the 27 projects that received grants is available on the Coastal Zone Management website.