Coastal Resiliency

Audubon is advancing nature-based strategies to help coastline communities weather the impacts of climate change.

Overhead Shot of Aramburu Island

Coastal Resiliency Basics 

What is coastal resiliency?

Coastal resiliency is a community’s ability to rebound after an extreme weather event.  Resilient, healthy coastal ecosystems serve as the first line of defense for coastal communities facing stronger storms, more frequent flooding, and sea level rise.  These resilient coastal ecosystems, in turn, greatly benefit bird communities. Audubon is advancing nature-based strategies to help coastline communities weather the impacts of climate change.

Audubon’s conservation, policy, and science teams prioritize potential restoration sites in and around socially vulnerable communities to protect both birds and people where they are at highest risk from sea level rise. 

How is Audubon strengthening coastal resiliency within San Francisco Bay?

  • Expanding efforts to fund, plan, design, develop, implement, and/or support innovative, climate-resilient protection and restoration.
  • Developing a revised habitat suitability model to guide protection and restoration of eelgrass habitat, incorporating climate change impacts.
  • Driving $500 million in new funding to San Francisco Bay restoration priorities and supporting passage of a “resiliency bond” that prioritizes investments in natural infrastructure solutions to address climate change and sea level rise, and legislation to improve sea level rise adaptation planning and creating other incentives for natural infrastructure projects.
  • Informing priorities for investments in natural infrastructure projects in the San Francisco Bay region, including Measure AA and State Coastal Conservancy projects and guidance on natural infrastructure solutions for addressing climate risks in land-use plans, state adaptation plans, and infrastructure investments.
  • Working with Audubon Chapters in the San Francisco Bay area, Audubon members, and other partners, to engage communities around the Bay Area through Action Alerts, meetings with elected officials, and our annual Advocacy Day, which supports funding for restoration of San Francisco Bay, passage of bonds to address coastal resilience, and engagement on local projects that may have benefits or detrimental impacts on wildlife and local communities.

Audubon's Coastal Resiliency Work

Aramburu Island

Aramburu Island is a 17-acre human-made island located in Richardson Bay.  The island was created in the 1960s from the dredge spoils from a nearby boating channel. Over many years, the unmanaged island became host to a wide variety of non-native and invasive plants and the banks significantly eroded due to wave action. 

In 2007, after the Cosco-Busan oil spill, Audubon California staff observed a large percentage of birds in Richardson Bay were using Aramburu Island as refuge from the toxic waters.  This observation led Audubon California to designate Aramburu Island as critical bird habitat and quickly made plans for an enhancement project. 

The Enhancement Plan improved aquatic, wetland, and upland habitats for a range of local species, stabilized the rapidly eroding eastern shoreline, and helped the island and surrounding communities adapt to sea level rise.  Since the completion of construction in 2012, thousands of native plants have been installed and hundreds of adult and youth volunteers have contributed thousands of hours restoring and maintaining the island.  Today, Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary staff host restoration workdays where volunteers can actively contribute to this ongoing restoration success.

Aramburu Island Shoreline Construction
Aramburu Island Volunteer Cleanup
Aramburu Island Shoreline Construction

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Sonoma Creek

Sonoma Creek runs from Sonoma County into the San Pablo Bay on the northernmost end of the greater San Francisco Bay. 

The California Gold Rush caused a rapid increase in human population across California.  During this time, mining and agricultural practices skyrocketed, causing a devastating effect on one of California’s most sensitive ecosystems- coastal wetlands.  In the San Francisco Bay Area, Sonoma Creek marsh displays the scars of these practices- poor hydrology that causes stagnant pools and form algal mats, harbor mosquitos, and suppress native vegetation as well as steep levees, which cut off the natural movement of plants, animals, and water.

Audubon California partnered with the Marin-Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District and the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge to restore this wetland to its highest potential. The core of the project involved constructing a network of tidal channels within the marsh to drastically improve tidal exchange, nutrient cycling, and provide habitat to a myriad of marsh-dependent wildlife species. The channels provide spawning and feeding grounds for endangered and commercial fish.

Improving hydrology improved water quality by increasing circulation and drastically reducing the amount of pesticides applied to areas  of ponded water that currently facilitate heavy mosquito production.  The project also had a vital climate change adaptation component. The construction of a gently-graded high marsh transition zone reduced storm surge flooding of adjacent private lands and provide crucial high tide refuges for rails and small mammals. 

Marin City

In recent years, sea level rise coupled with a growing number of king tide events continues to cause severe flooding, which is also increasing in frequency and intensity along coastal cities.  Across the Bay Area this means that highways, streets, and pathways become impassable, cutting off travel and emergency response access.  These devastating effects are visible in Marin City. 

Marin City is situated between sloping hillsides, Highway 101, and San Francisco Bay.  When Highway 101 floods in this low-lying area, access to Marin City is completely shut off, wholly isolating this community.  Marin City has a proud heritage as a traditionally African-American ship-building community in World War II.  Many of the residents are related to the original workers who made Marin City their home to serve their country.  Marin City also has challenges. Residents earn a lower family income, experience higher health disparities, have lower life expectancies and perform lower in school than the County average.

Audubon California is partnering with the Marin City Climate Resilience and Health Justice – a local grassroots - to help fortify the coastal resiliency of this community.  With input from community members in Marin City, Audubon California and ShoreUp Marin City are planning to restore a retention pond located between Marin City, Highway 101, and San Francisco Bay.  Through the use of natural infrastructure, this project will enhance, facilitate, protect, and restore naturally occurring ecological functions and processes of the pond and surrounding wetland. Not only with this benefit the local plant and animal communities, but this restored pond will also serve as a public park- providing walking trails, informational signage, and bird-watching opportunities.

San Francisco Bay Conservation Strategy

  • Audubon California created a San Francisco Bay Conservation Strategy that aims to protect, restore, and build resilient coastal ecosystems in San Francisco Bay.
  • Audubon’s conservation, policy, and science teams prioritized potential restoration sites in and around socially vulnerable communities to protect both birds and people where they are at highest risk from sea-level rise
  • Read our Blueprint for Resilient Coastal Communities in San Francisco Bay

Policy Work

Audubon is the voice for birds from Town Halls to the U.S. Capitol. We will bring the full power of our expansive network to bear on behalf of the most important policies that will lead to protection for birds, ecosystem restoration and resilience, and healthy coastal habitats.

California

  • Secure state funding that prioritizes investments in natural infrastructure solutions to address climate change and sea-level rise, and legislation to improve sea-level rise adaptation planning and create other incentives for natural infrastructure projects.
  • Inform priorities for investments in natural infrastructure projects in the San Francisco Bay region, including Measure AA and State Coastal Conservancy projects, and guidance on natural infrastructure solutions for addressing climate risks in land-use plans, state adaptation plans, and infrastructure investments.

Federal

  • Advance San Francisco Bay Restoration Act and appropriations for the EPA Geographic Program.
  • Support establishment and implementation of programs within the Department of Transportation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that support natural infrastructure projects, including the beneficial use of dredged material for habitat projects and other nature-based solutions that reduce flood risks for communities and improve habitats for birds and other wildlife.

Black Oystercatcher

Latin:  Haematopus bachmani

Illustration for Black Oystercatcher

Caspian Tern

Latin:  Hydroprogne caspia

Illustration for Caspian Tern

Snowy Plover

Latin:  Charadrius nivosus

Illustration for Snowy Plover

American Avocet

Latin:  Recurvirostra americana

Illustration for American Avocet

News & Updates

Building Anew Along the Shores of San Diego County
Coastal Resiliency

Building Anew Along the Shores of San Diego County

Local chapters, universities, Indigenous groups, and Audubon California collaborate to revitalize a shoreline that has long been left to the depredations of industrial action.

New Model Maps a Resilient SF Bay Future Through Climate-Smart Seagrass Restoration
Press Center

New Model Maps a Resilient SF Bay Future Through Climate-Smart Seagrass Restoration

— New eelgrass habitat model to supercharge conservation efforts to prevent acidification, erosion, and other climate change impacts in major CA bays
Effects of Extreme High Surf Events on Coastal Community Science
Coastal Resiliency

Effects of Extreme High Surf Events on Coastal Community Science

Postponement of Ventura's Christmas Bird Count

California Ocean Day 2023
Seas & Shores

California Ocean Day 2023

Advocating for healthy ocean ecosystems, coastal access, and pollution prevention.

We Stand with Seabirds
Coastal Resiliency

We Stand with Seabirds

In the midst of a seabird crisis, we made waves on Capitol Hill for resilient coasts.

Coastal Resiliency

Why We Can't Live Without Eelgrass

This beautiful seagrass provides dozens of ecosystem services and provides essential habitat for coastal birds.

Audubon Awarded $500K Grant to Restore San Diego County Coastal Wetlands
Seas & Shores

Audubon Awarded $500K Grant to Restore San Diego County Coastal Wetlands

Audubon will work with Indigenous peoples, local community groups, and wetlands scientists to restore portions of Mission Bay in San Diego and land adjacent to Buena Vista Lagoon in North County

Huntington Beach Oil Spill Fouls Beaches Home to Federally Threatened Snowy Plovers
Seas & Shores

Huntington Beach Oil Spill Fouls Beaches Home to Federally Threatened Snowy Plovers

— Oiled Western Snowy Plover on shoreline in Huntington Beach
Audubon California: Orange County Oil Spill of Extreme Concern to Migrating Seabirds
Seas & Shores

Audubon California: Orange County Oil Spill of Extreme Concern to Migrating Seabirds

— “It is time to stop putting our coastal birds and communities at risk from the oil industry.”
Shortbelly Rockfish: An unlikely forage fish rockstar
Coastal Resiliency

Shortbelly Rockfish: An unlikely forage fish rockstar

Speak up for this critical seafood for seabirds, including Marbled Murrelets, Pigeon Guillemot, Rhinoceros Auklets, Common Murre, Brandt’s Cormorant, and California Least Tern

How you can help, right now