Coastal Resiliency
Coastal Parks in a Changing Climate
NPCA works to safeguard national park waters and aquatic habitats from their greatest challenge – climate change.
Our 88 coastal parks are living laboratories, providing vital information about the health of our oceans and our national parks. Hundreds of millions of Americans depend on clean, healthy waterways and oceans, teeming with abundant wildlife for their livelihoods, cultural identities and well-being.
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Coastal parks in the National Park System cover more than 11,000 miles of shoreline and 2.5 million acres of oceans and Great Lakes’ waters.
With today’s rapidly changing climate, our coastal national parks are on the front lines of climate harms with rising temperatures and sea-levels, to frequent flooding and shoreline erosion, to more extreme storms, coral bleaching, and longer visitation seasons. NPCA works to protect, restore and strengthen our coastal national parks by advocating for federal funding and stronger policies to protect more of our oceans and waterways. Doing so not only makes our parks and communities stronger to combat climate harms, it promotes human health benefits, our livelihoods and local economies.
Blog Post
Coastal Parks Offer Climate Solutions
NPCA is working to ensure coastal national parks are part of the climate solution. The more we protect national park waters from climate impacts now, the more they will protect us and our parks for generations to come.
NPCA AT WORK
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Enhancing Coastal ResiliencyNPCA is advancing research and strategies to protect, preserve and restore the 88 coastal national parks by building resiliency to climate change.
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Strengthening Marine Protected AreasNPCA is working to create and expand marine protected areas within and adjacent to national parks, marine national monuments and national marine sanctuaries.
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Protecting and Restoring Coastal EcosystemsNPCA is leveraging federal aquatic ecosystem restoration programs to restore coastal ecosystems, while working to defeat incompatible energy development projects that would destroy coastal habitats and exacerbate the climate crisis. We secure record-breaking federal investments in the Great Lakes, Everglades, Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watershed.
Explore Four Coastal Parks
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Cape Hatteras National Seashore: Collapsing homes and beach debris create new challenges for the National Park Service
Cape Hatteras National Seashore
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Big Thicket National Preserve: Nature-based solution to dealing with extreme coastal storms and flooding
Big Thicket National Preserve
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Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park: Losing Sites on the Trail to Freedom to Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Flooding
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park
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Everglades National Park: Saltwater intrusion threatens abundant biodiversity and drinking water supply for millions of Floridians
Everglades National Park
