Climate Resilience

“Resilience,” despite having become a buzzword, still helps remind us of the most essential feature of healthy communities:   their capacity to withstand threat and bounce back from disaster.  Vashon’s resiliency is probably most challenged by climate change, given our geography (forests that burn, soils that hold too much or not enough moisture) and dependence on a single natural resource, our aquifer, for something as essential as drinking water.

Island landowners can help make the community more climate-resilient in at least four areas.

Managing wildfire.  Risks to the Island from wildfire have increased dramatically due to climate change.  Property owners can help reduce the severity of wildfire by managing any woods on their property for forest health.  (Healthy forests burn less intensely and spread wildfire more slowly than do unhealthy ones.)  They can also eliminate a major wildfire accelerant—structures catching fire—by creating “defensible space” as a firebreak around buildings on their land.

Mitigating summer drought and higher air temperatures.  Thanks to climate change, excessive heat and dryness are now regular features of the Island’s summer, a season that increasingly extends into spring and fall.  Landowners can help with hot temps and high aridity through preserving and restoring any natural areas of vegetation on their property.  (Vegetation lowers air temperature and keeps moisture in the air.)  Owners can also plant or construct shade areas, which offer summer refuge to humans and other animals.

Reducing threats to surface and groundwater.  These resources are threatened by climate change everywhere, including the Island.  Drier summers can mean less surface water to provide the ecosystem services mentioned above.  So can wetter winters, when deluges lead to surface water racing across the ground rather than soaking in or, in some places, soaking in too much, hardening the soil come the dry seasons.

As this resource diminishes, communities are tempted to compensate by relying more on groundwater, which can lead to irreversible overdraught (taking more water out of an aquifer than can be replenished by rain) and/or inadvertent pollution resulting from more withdrawal sites being created.

Landowners can help reduce the likelihood of either by managing their property’s surface water to prevent runoff, allowing soak-in time for soils.  Adding organics can lighten soils, improving absorption.  Property owners can lessen risks to groundwater by instituting water-wise practices around the home, maintaining septic systems, and keeping wellhead areas clear of possible contaminants.

Providing open space.  Well-documented are the psychological benefits of open space as restorer of climate hope and temporary respite from climate alarm.  Landowners, who hold much of the Island’s open space, can add to the County’s and Land Trust’s inventory of this precious commodity by conserving and actively restoring open areas of their property.  Creating a formal plan for doing so can really motivate a landowner and keep things on track.