Building coastal climate change resilience

In 2023, we launched an innovative approach to help Washington's coastal communities and Tribes build their resilience to climate change.

We established a special Coastal Hazards Organizational Resilience Team, or COHORT, to help boost the ability of coastal communities and Tribes to thrive in the present, adapt to challenges and transform as necessary to meet future threats, and take advantage of opportunities related to climate change.

While Ecology plays an important team role, other members represent the state Military Department's Emergency Management Division, Washington Sea Grant, and Washington State University Extension.

More than half of Washington residents, about 5 million people, live and work in the 15 counties contiguous to Puget Sound and Pacific Ocean coast. The COHORT works in close collaboration with the counties as well as 19 coastal Tribes and dozens of cities, ports, conservation districts and other public entities throughout the region.

The team works directly with coastal Tribes and communities to better understand the unique threats they face. These actions are critical for helping our partners design locally tailored solutions to tackle different coastal hazards that climate change and sea level rise are making worse, including:

• Coastal flooding
• Beach and bluff erosion
• Saltwater intrusion
• Increased storm severity

Our goal is to help local partners find funding and resources, develop plans and studies, and identify and build projects that protect residents and businesses, economic and cultural resources, farmland and shellfish beds, public infrastructure, and important shoreline and estuarine habitat.

The COHORT is funded by the innovative Climate Commitment Act which supports Washington's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2050 while creating jobs and improving public health. Released in October 2025, our inaugural report about COHORT's efforts from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2025, highlights the team's actions and activities.

To better understand local concerns, needs, and challenges related to climate change, the COHORT participated in 350 different community meetings, workshops and other coastal events. This outreach involved more than 5,500 residents, Tribal staff, elected and appointed officials, and other key partners.

The team also:

• Created a strategy to integrate environmental justice concerns into community climate resilience efforts.
• Helped local partners secure $85 million in federal funding to pay for coastal resilience planning and projects, including measures to offset or mitigate known hazards.
• Established a unique fellowship program to support local resilience efforts. Under the program, early-career fellows are paired with a coastal city, county, or Tribe for two years.
• Submitted proposals for resilience projects to federal and state funding programs worth more than $150 million and helped launch or support 67 unique coastal projects.

Project highlights

Pacific Ocean coast

To help address dynamic and shifting hydraulic and environmental factors affecting the entrance to Grays Harbor, many of which are related to climate change, COHORT members helped the cities of Westport and Ocean Shores develop a resilience strategy by bringing together Grays Harbor County to apply for a grant to study flooding and coastal erosion concerns, and build a coordinated plan and find future funding mechanisms.

The state team also helped the Pacific Conservation District secure a federal grant to install a nature-based dynamic revetment to restore 1.1 miles of beach at North Cove, located along the north shore of Willapa Bay. The beach was once the fastest eroding beach on the U.S. West Coast, but we worked with the community, the drainage district, and the conservation district to find a long-term solution. The effort is improving natural shoreline processes in the area, including building back the beach and protecting the nearshore area.

Olympic Peninsula and Strait of Juan de Fuca

On the north Olympic Peninsula, the COHORT and Washington's Coastal Zone Management Program assisted Trout Unlimited in securing $1.6 million in federal funding to restore more than a mile of Owl Creek, a tributary of the Hoh River in Jefferson County, including the surrounding floodplain. The project supplements state-funded restoration and will improve spawning and rearing habitat for Chinook and coho salmon, steelhead, and resident trout species. Habitat loss and environmental degradation have adversely affected salmon and forage fish species in the creek. In addition, Trout Unlimited and the Hoh Tribe are working together to restore more than 20 acres of riverside habitat using engineered log jams and large pieces of woody debris to make the ecosystem more resilient to climate change.

Along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the COHORT also helped Clallam County update their hazard mitigation plan to address and reduce the impacts related to natural and human-caused threats such as earthquakes and tsunamis, wildfires, droughts and power outages. The COHORT provided early feedback and guidance to provide a quicker state and federal review of the plan.

The COHORT also helped convene an interagency team that has applied for federal funding to conduct a vulnerability assessment of coastal roadways and adjacent habitats in Washington's 15 coastal counties. The interagency team includes representatives from Ecology, the state departments of fish and wildlife and transportation, and Washington Sea Grant. They are studying how vulnerable the state's coastal roads are to sea level rise, coastal flooding and erosion. The project will also identify up to six future transportation projects that build resilience to climate threats, protect and restore aquatic habitats, and meet community needs.

Puget Sound

In Puget Sound, the state team is helping local partners restore the Chinook and Everett marshes in the Snohomish River estuary located in King and Snohomish counties. The projects are funded by a $76.3 million federal grant Ecology helped secure in 2024. The COHORT solicited project ideas from partners and coordinated outreach meetings to develop the projects.

The Tulalip Tribes will complete planning activities to restore the Everett Marsh to reduce flood risk, boost agricultural resiliency to climate threats, provide recreational opportunities and restore critical habitat for salmon. Once complete, the project will reduce coastal flooding vulnerability for 6,280 acres of land that includes an airport, railways, businesses, agricultural lands and residential areas. The project will also include plans to set back vulnerable infrastructure.

Snohomish County will lead the restoration of the Chinook Marsh. This involves restoring tidal influences for about 430 acres to build resilience to floods, storms, and sea level rise to protect communities and farmland along the Snohomish River while restoring habitat for Chinook salmon.

Forging foundation for a resilient future

When evaluating potential projects, the COHORT gives priority to proposals that:

• Center on local and Tribal leadership and decision-making
• Restore and reconnect habitat
• Protect and improve public infrastructure
• Enhance ecosystem resilience to climate change
• Support local economies

Our report highlights the remarkable results that occur when state agencies work hand in hand with local partners, find ways together to empower community voices, and support locally led efforts. To help strengthen Washington's climate readiness, the COHORT is helping build networks to share information and the lessons they have learned, support workforce development, and improve interagency coordination.

The COHORT approach represents a shift away from a reactive hazard response to building readiness for the growing challenges posed by worsening storms and our changing climate.