Salem Secures State Grant for Collins Cove Resiliency Work
The City of Salem was one of nineteen projects statewide to have received a Coastal Resilience Grant from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) in its most recent round of funding awards today.
CZM’s Coastal Resilience Grant Program provides financial and technical support for innovative local efforts to increase awareness and understanding of climate impacts, plan for changing conditions, redesign vulnerable community facilities and infrastructure and implement non-structural measures to increase natural storm damage protection, flood and erosion control and community resilience. Grants can be used for planning, public outreach and feasibility assessment and analysis of shoreline vulnerability, as well as for design, permitting, construction and monitoring of projects that enhance or create natural resources to provide increased shoreline stabilization and flood control.
Salem was awarded $216,550 to support restoration of salt marsh in parts of the Collins Cove shoreline, designed to provide increased protection from erosion, storm surge, and wave forces. The project includes a partnership with Salem Sound Coastwatch to provide ongoing monitoring and maintenance to help enhance the longevity of the infrastructure upgrades. The design phase of the project had been funded by a previous Coastal Resilience grant from CZM.
“Massachusetts coastal communities face ongoing and growing challenges from climate change as they work to safeguard residents and businesses, maintain infrastructure and protect developed and natural areas from increasing storm severity and sea level rise impacts,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “Our administration remains committed to providing financial support and technical assistance to help communities invest in a more resilient future.”
“By creating a living shoreline along the path at Collins Cove our hope is to stabilize this section of eroding shoreline and increase its capacity to absorb wave action,” said Mayor Kim Driscoll. “Through the use of native salt marsh grasses and biodegradable coir logs, our goal is to implement a green solution that will us help meet the increasing resiliency demands of this unique coastline in our community My thanks go out to the Baker administration, the team at CZM, our own staff who have worked on this project, and to our partners at Salem Sound Coastwatch.”
Learn more about the Collins Cove Living Shoreline Project at https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=30a586cb43914bb89d197e09c37021cd.