The Cape Cod Commission is working with the town of Eastham on a plan that will guide the town through the next several years of climate change-related challenges.
This summer, the Commission is collecting input on the climate plan from Eastham residents.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke to Cape Cod Commission deputy director Steven Tupper to learn more about how the plan is being developed and how people can participate.
Gilda Geist Steven, tell me a little bit about how the Eastham Climate Action Plan got started.
Steven Tupper So, the town of Eastham has always had a priority, in terms of projects, to increase the resiliency of their community, broadly under the climate action category. What they would like to do is have a dedicated effort to develop a local climate action plan where they can work to prioritize future projects within the town and understand some of the threats to the community. Overall, this would work with existing planning efforts in town and be an avenue to identify projects and prioritize those locally.
GG In a recent press release, the Cape Cod Commission reported that 20 percent of Eastham's properties are located within the Special Flood Hazard Zone. What does that mean for Eastham residents, and what other kinds of climate challenges does the town face?
ST In many ways, Eastham is defined by its coastal areas, and it's certainly something that the residents love about the community. But it certainly puts them on the front line of some of the impacts from major storms — storms that are happening with increasing frequency and severity due to our changing climate. So that's certainly a threat if you happen to own one of those houses on the coast, but it's also a threat in terms of the overall community. It takes a lot of resources to think about those areas on the coast. And as you lose houses on the coast, it also affects the overall tax base. Folks should care about that, whether or not they live on the coast. Then beyond those particular impacts, there's a lot of other impacts across the community. It affects the livelihood of many within the community, certainly those based in terms of the tourism economy are really affected when we see some changes in climate. And then to give another specific example, we understand that fishing and aquaculture is a significant portion of the community of Eastham, and we're seeing changes in the climate, changes in temperatures of water are certainly affecting the livelihood of those that rely on the ocean.
GG This summer, the Cape Cod Commission is going all over Eastham to get community input on this project. How has that been going so far?
ST It's been great. We wanted to make sure to hear from as many perspectives as possible in the town of Eastham, so we started by talking with all of the town departments that in some way touched this topic. And then I've been in this suite of outreach activities recently. So we've had focus groups with those in the business community, youth focus groups, and we're having one for seniors as well. And then we're going to have less formal pop-ups across the community. I'm trying to meet folks where they are, whether it be at the Eastham Public Library, we'll be out on the beaches this summer with the Energy and Climate Committee in the town of Eastham, at the farmers market recently and we'll be out there again and having a number of other pop-ups like at the swap shop to try to have some informal opportunities to get feedback on this plan.
GG What does the timeline for this project look like?
ST Overall, we'll be working through the course of this calendar year to develop the plan. So right now we're in the uptake phase. We're listening to input from the community, including those pop-ups and the workshop that we have coming up. We'll be developing a draft plan with the town in the fall. At that point, we will come back to the community for feedback on the draft plan, then it'll be up to the town to potentially approve the plan early next year.
GG What else do you want people to know about the Eastham Climate Action Plan?
ST We understand some of these things take resources and take funding. So one of the explicit outcomes here is to put the town in a position to go after additional funding. They've been very successful doing that so far, but this is another way to build up to opportunities in that space.
GG What other opportunities will people have to weigh in on this project?
ST The workshop will be coming up on July 29 at Eastham Public Library from 6 to 7:30 PM. We'd like to hear from anyone who's concerned about the future of Eastham and thinks that there may be some activities that would make sense to support the town. Whether you have some really specific ideas that you'd like to share, if you'd just like to learn more or if you're concerned about some of the things going on in town, this is an open forum. We're here to listen and look forward to some conversation.
For a complete list of ways Eastham residents can give their input for the climate plan, visit the Cape Cod Commission website.
