Growing Regional Resilience Coordination on Aquidneck Island

Recipient: Aquidneck Land Trust (formerly City of Newport)
Funding Amount: $1,999,777

Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island, home to the three municipalities of Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth, in addition to Naval Station Newport, faces increasing climate threats to water quality, conservation, transportation, food systems, and beyond. According to the Aquidneck Land Trust, at the current rate of development, all of Aquidneck Island’s remaining unprotected open spaces, if not conserved, will be developed between now and 2050. This project, led by the Aquidneck Land Trust in partnership with the island municipalities and the Navy, and in collaboration with many local stakeholders, seeks to capitalize on the momentum of resilience initiatives already underway. Committed to conserving the island’s open spaces and building on prior successful projects (including the conservation of over 2,800 acres), the land trust will use this opportunity to grow their island-wide approach to resilience, offering technical assistance, capacity building, and actionable strategies for responding to climate change. They will work with their established network of partners to implement resilience projects that include nature-based solutions to address threats from flooding, sea level rise, and water pollution.

For more information on the grant program funding this project, please visit the Inflation Reduction Act webpage. For more information on the Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, visit the Office for Coastal Management’s resilience challenge webpage.