The Freshwater Trust awarded $1 million grant to reduce flood risk

The National Fish & Wildlife Federation (NFWF), with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has awarded The Freshwater Trust (TFT), on behalf of the Sandy River Basin Partners (Partners), a one million dollar grant. The research-based grant has been designed to quantify the benefits of floodplain restoration projects as a means to deliver multiple community and environmental benefits. Such benefits include reducing flood risk to communities and infrastructure within the region of the Sandy River basin in Oregon and improving habitat for cold-water salmon and other species in the Sandy River and Columbia basins.

Lowering flood risk has become a significant focus for municipalities and other agencies recently, and with good reason. Data from NOAA shows that since 1980, the United States has experienced 395 weather and climate disasters, with the total cost for damages and loss of life exceeding $2.7 trillion. In 2024, between January 1 and August 8, there were 19 confirmed climate and weather disaster events with losses of over $1 billion each. Data also shows an increase in disaster spending in the last five years, averaging about $148.4 billion annually. This number is expected to increase exponentially as the US adjusts to significantly more frequent and severe disasters resulting from various factors, including climate change.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responds to these disasters, but being proactive is also a key part of its role. FEMA promotes building resilience by finding mutually beneficial solutions to better prepare communities and reduce the risk of future damages. Likewise, investing in innovative solutions, such as floodplain restoration as a more cost-effective method to potentially reduce disaster spending, could provide agencies with more options to build resilience.

“Our work in the Sandy River basin has focused on the recovery of threatened species, especially salmon, and we have completed many restoration actions for improving habitat, augmenting and reconnecting side channels, and restoring floodplains,” said Mark McCollister, Habitat Restoration Director at The Freshwater Trust. “This project with NFWF and NOAA allows us to take what we’ve learned from floodplain restoration one step further as we work to quantify the ongoing benefits for fish habitat but also how floodplains could reduce the risk of floods downriver for local communities.”

Flood prevention methods have changed significantly over the decades. Previous generations thought straightening rivers would prevent flooding, and that method was applied to the Sandy River. Unfortunately, research has proven that straightening rivers has adverse environmental effects and doesn’t provide added flood protection. Straightening rivers often cut them off from their natural floodplains, which is essential for mitigating flood risk.

Floodplains include the low-lying areas adjacent to rivers that are subject to flooding when rivers go over their banks. They are like a natural buffer zone, allowing rivers to expand to accommodate heavier rains or snowmelt. Without these buffer zones, rivers with strong flows can cause flash flooding that washes away sediment, fish and wildlife habitats, and human infrastructure.

The Sandy River experienced major flood events in 1996 and 2011 that caused extensive damage to roads and homes. Since then, TFT and the Partners have been working in the Sandy basin to strategically replace what was removed decades ago.

One of these strategic actions includes restoring side channels and floodplains to improve water quality and fish habitat. Several fish species in the Sandy have been listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, including Chinook, coho, and winter steelhead. Significantly impaired habitat has dramatically prevented the species from thriving. By working with many regional partners, TFT has successfully reconnected floodplains and restored side-channel habitat that have aided in slowing down river flows in key areas to create pools where fish can safely and successfully spawn. While projects are ongoing, by working on a watershed scale, TFT and partners are on their way to restoring natural processes within the Sandy to create a high-quality, self-sustaining habitat.

With the NFWF grant, TFT now has the opportunity to analyze how floodplain restoration can deliver multiple benefits: Not only for threatened species upstream, but also to communities and infrastructure downstream.

“Using data and analytics to address conservation was unheard of not too long ago, but now it is our only path forward,” said Meg Belais, Northwest Programs Director at TFT. “Quantified conservation focuses on using data to make more effective decisions and prioritize projects that will deliver the most significant impact. Our capacity to conduct this research and identify the benefits of floodplain restoration as they relate to improving fish habitat and lowering flood risk is a perfect example of how conservation and community come together.”

TFT’s proposed project under this grant will first focus on developing analytical models to do the following:

1. Identify floodplain restoration projects for flood risk reduction and salmon and steelhead benefits.
2. Quantify projects in multiple “environmental currencies” so that TFT and partners can better pool funding from multiple sources and do more of this critical work at speed.
3. Compare and prioritize these opportunities to maximize flood risk reduction and fish habitat improvement, given various funding levels.

“While the technology investment in floodplain restoration and flood risk analysis will always be costly, the return on investment of a preemptive analysis of this caliber cannot be ignored regarding the lives saved, damage costs reduced, and habitat restored. The work we’re doing is replicable in other basins and the data from an analysis like this could be used to help reduce multiple linear feet of water during a 10-, 20-, or 100-year flood scenario, saving lives as well as billions in disaster recovery spending,” said Belais.

TFT is moving into the project’s first phase, which involves extensive data collection and model development as they begin their analysis. By quantifying the outcomes associated with various floodplain restoration actions, TFT can then proceed towards identifying a slate of prioritized restoration projects that provide cost-effective means to reduce both flood risk and improve fish habitat.

While this project is heavily focused on research and development, the results could justify innovative strategies to redistribute disaster funding toward highly preventative measures like floodplain restoration. Such results could lay the groundwork for nationwide flood prevention that’s also environmentally sustainable.

The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government or the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and its funding sources. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government, or the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation or its funding sources.