Healthy ecosystems are nature’s barrier to hurricane damage
Mangrove forests are excellent buffers against storms (Ravini/Pixabay/)Soon after Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the coast of Texas in 2017, the tragically slow-moving, highly-destructive storm dumped a record-breaking amount of rain on Houston and southern Texas for days. Yet this could have been much worse for Clear Lake City, a community in southeastern Houston, which was protected by a swath of newly reclaimed wetland. Once an abandoned golf course, the area was in the process of being converted into a 200-acre park and wetland. When Harvey hit, the effort was only 80% complete, yet still able to hold 100 million gallons of water and protect 150 homes from flooding.This is one of the examples in a new report, published on June 5th by the National Wildlife Federation, that documents the oft-overlooked capacity of natural ecosystems to protect communities from hurricanes and other natural disasters. The report, “The Protective Value of...