Wetlands Watch is developing a program strategy and community of practice that will help local governments overcome barriers to complete property acquisitions in flood risk areas. Most localities, particularly those located in coastal Virginia, where the impacts of sea level rise are acutely felt, do not have active acquisition programs. While there are many reasons why buyouts are not pursued in communities, such as lack of political will, capacity constraints, and grant writing inexperience, one barrier is of particular interest and the subject of this presentation. Local government staff do not specialize in land conservation management. As the number of acquired parcels in a community increases commensurate with the increased risk from sea level rise, the land management responsibilities grow exponentially for local government staff. How can localities keep up with the financial and programmatic burden of managing vacant parcels? Wetlands Watch hopes land conservation and other land management organizations can offer one solution to this problem.
This presentation will discuss our work to date on connecting land conservation and management organizations with local governments removing people from flood risk. The presentation will describe the work of a multi-year pilot project with the City of Norfolk that brings land conservation into a private market-based acquisition program. Finally, the presentation will detail the creation of a community of practice that connects land trusts with local government hazard mitigation and floodplain management program staff to pursue acquisition grants available through a newly created state fund in Virginia and other national grant programs.