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Hegseth could lead troops who'd face getting fired for actions he's done in the past; Strong Santa Ana winds return for SoCal; Southeast Asian refugees in MA fear deportation, seek Biden pardon; RSV rise puts Indiana hospitals on alert; CT lawmakers urged to focus on LGBTQ+ legislation.

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The Special Counsel's report says Donald Trump would have been convicted for election interference. Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth faces harsh questioning from Senate Democrats, and law enforcement will be increased for next week's inauguration.

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"Drill, baby, drill" is a tough sell for oil and gas companies in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, rising sea levels create struggles for Washington's coastal communities, and more folks than ever are taking advantage of America's great outdoors.

Multi-State Conservation Plan to Protect Salt Marshes

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Monday, August 8, 2022   

Conservation groups along several states on the East coast stretching from North Carolina to northeast Florida are working through a plan to conserve one million acres of salt marsh nearly the size of Grand Canyon National Park.

When it comes to Mother Nature, state boundaries are non-existent - so environmental groups, scientists, native communities and state and federal agencies are working together on the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative Project.

It's a voluntary, collaborative plan to help states protect channels of coastal grasslands that do more than meets the eye.

Kent Smith - a biological administrator with the Aquatic Habitat Conservation and Restoration Section of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - said salt marshes are extremely good at sequestering carbon from the atmosphere by forming a thick peat to trap the CO2 in the sediments below.

"They also stabilize the shorelines in coast areas," said Smith. "So they keep sediments in place and they protect properties from the impacts of climate change, sea-level rise, tropical storms, things like that."

Smith said coastal development threatens the natural protections salt marshes provide, and their hope is to spread awareness so communities and developers can work together to protect these natural habitats.

Jim McCarthy - president of the North Florida Land Trust - is part of the initiative and works to buy salt marshes to preserve and protect them. He said manmade solutions to protect areas from things like storm surges don't always work.

He said one example is in Jacksonville, where marsh grasses were taken out of an area and replaced with concrete bulkheads. He said that was disastrous during Hurricane Irma.

"And as the St. Johns River turns east," said McCarthy, "it literally went over its banks because there is nothing to make the energy out of it and there is nothing to absorb it, if you will, as there would be if you had had natural marsh grasses. "

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the U.S. loses 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands, including salt marshes, each year, driven by development and sea-level rise.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.




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