PARTNERING TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF SEA LEVEL RISE: NOAA’S BAY AND OUTER COAST SENTINEL SITE COOPERATIVE Jenna Judge1, Jim Eckman2, Adam Fullerton3, Aimee Good4, Wendy Goodfriend3, Sara Hutto5, Becky Lunde6, Lisa Schiavinato2, Becky Smyth6, Mike Vasey4 1NOAA Sentinel Site Cooperative 2California Sea Grant 3San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission 4San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve 5Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary 6NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management

Vision A Area that is resilient to sea-level rise through strong partnerships that together protect critical ecosystem and community services.

The San Francisco Bay and Outer Coast Sentinel Site Cooperative is one of five NOAA Sentinel Site Cooperatives. The overarching goal of the Cooperative is to enhance the capacity of Bay Area communities to plan for and adapt to changing coastal flood conditions. We foster partnerships and facilitate collaboration to leverage the wealth of knowledge, programs, and resources that already exist in our region, and link these with national NOAA resources.

Geographic scope of the Cooperative SENTINEL SITE COOPERATIVE FOCUS AREAS AND RELATED PROJECTS Development of a regional network for early detection Bridging natural and built adaptation planning Fostering resilience efforts that incorporate and forecasting of marsh ecosystem changes There is substantial evidence that integrating natural and “urban” infrastructure in connections between the ocean/outer coast and bay adaptation planning can improve coastal resiliency. The Cooperative can help develop The Cooperative will assist in the process of establishing a regional tidal marsh San Francisco Bay is coupled with the outer coast and ocean in many ways, best practices with the most recent science and data to better integrate goals related monitoring program that will serve as an early detection network for climate and adaptation planning efforts within and outside of the bay could better to restoring healthy ecosystems and protecting coastal communities from rising sea related changes throughout the estuary. inform one another. We seek to initiate a collaborative exchange between levels, storms and flooding events. scientists and managers working on both sides of the Bridge.

Image Credit: Tom Muehleisen image credit: The Bay Institute The San Francisco Bay NERR collects data on the ground and uses innovative To share lessons learned and best practices, the Cooperative Coordinator is The Beyond the Golden Gate Research Symposium brought together remote sensing approaches in their Sentinel Site tidal marshes to predict how developing detailed case studies and analysis of the design, cost, and performance of up researchers presenting new, on-going, and recently completed monitoring mature and restored marshes will respond to changing conditions. We are using the to 10 existing coastal natural shoreline infrastructure projects in California in partnership and habitat characterization projects in the Gulf of Farallones and adjacent tidal marshes at SF Bay NERR sites; Rush Ranch and nearby China Camp to refine with The Nature Conservancy, Point Blue Conservation Science, and Environmental waters between Point Arena and Point Año Nuevo – including Cordell Bank, best practices and apply targeted monitoring at other sites around the bay as part of Science Associates as part of California’s 4th Climate Change Assessment. Point Reyes, and central San Francisco Bay. The Cooperative is a co-sponsor, a regional marsh monitoring program. and hopes to continue the conversations that start at this symposium.

NOAA The Cooperative is helping to link lessons across adaptation planning satellite USGS efforts such as: • Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary’s (GFNMS) climate-smart management strategies to reduce resource vulnerability and enhance NOAA resilience. GFNMS is currently developing a Climate Action Plan. Aerial TerrAvion • San Mateo and Marin counties are the two most vulnerable bay area NOAA | Solano Land Trust counties to coastal flooding and both have bayside and outer coast shore- UAS Straight Up Imaging lines, requiring them to pursue adaptation strategies in different regulatory SF Estuary Geospatial Workgroup and geomorphic contexts.

System Wide Monitoring Program Sediment dynamics resulting from natural processes and management Field NOAA | USGS | Solano Land Trust practices in the delta and bay influence not only accretion in baylands San Francisco State | Citizen Scientists marshes, but also the delivery of sand to outer coast beaches. This is one UC Cooperative Extension | UC Davis topic the Cooperative would like to explore further.

Image: Alex Wick The Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Program leads and supports multi-sector, cross- jurisdictional projects that build local and regional capacity in the San Francisco Bay Area to plan for and adapt to sea level rise. The ART Program’s Hayward Shoreline Resilience Study was a collaborative stakeholder-driven effort that resulted in a shared, multi-objective shoreline vision to protect the functions and values of both natural and

Image: Sarah Ferner NERR Programs built assets. The findings and outcomes of the study are being used by stakeholder Research agencies to advance planning for a new shoreline configuration that will maximize co-benefits for natural and built assets and the communities that rely on them. Education Stewardship For more information go to www.adaptingtorisingtides.org

Image:Image: MattSarah Ferner Ferner Coastal Training Sentinel Site Cooperative

Image: Alex Wick

Photo credit: BCDC The Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center is a one-of-its kind regional education resource that is at risk from rising seas. Image: Tom Muehleisen Sediment discharge event on 3/16/16 captured by NASA Worldview sfsentinelsitecooperative.org CONTACT Jenna Judge, Coordinator [email protected] 510-637-3797