For many communities across America, flooding is an expensive, messy and heartbreaking problem. Over the past decade, floods have caused more than $25 billion in damage in America, destroyed homes and businesses and threatened water quality in our communities. And with 100-year floods and even 500-year floods happening with alarming regularity, we need new solutions to keep our communities clean and dry when the rains come.

The good news: We have some of those solutions.

Land Conservation As Natural Flood Management

While flooding can’t be prevented, it can be minimized. Did you know that a single acre of wetlands can hold 1 million gallons of floodwater? Conserving wetlands is a preservation strategy that has been used in areas from Massachusetts to Colorado because wetlands capture floodwater and release it slowly back into the surrounding environment. Similarly, forests, full of thirsty tree roots and topsoil, can suck up excess water that could otherwise overrun and damage land. At the Fund, we understand that protecting wetlands and forests has myriad benefits, including maintaining a natural landscape that can help curb flooding in communities.

Flood Management In Urban Areas

In urban areas, our strategy is to engineer “green infrastructure” into city settings, so that well-placed trees, grassy areas, water-draining pavement and other features channel and control rainwater. For many urban areas, these "green" features offer an inexpensive add-on to the deep tunnels, pipes and other gray infrastructure used to control stormwater. As cities endure more intense storms, the right infrastructure can prevent sewers from overflowing and threatening water quality.

Our Efforts

While protecting large landscapes and planning green infrastructure, we continue to forge new solutions to help communities protect their landscapes. Click on the links below to learn more about our efforts:

Nashville Naturally: Open Space Plan In Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is one city hit hard by flooding in recent years. Thanks to Mayor Karl Dean and the Land Trust for Tennessee, Nashville is on the forefront of a national trend to green urban areas. They chose the Fund to lead the development of an open space plan. The result? Nashville Naturally, the most progressive open space protection strategy in the Southeast.

Greenseams: Flood Management In Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Fund works with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to implement the District’s Greenseams program, an ambitious initiative to conserve water and prevent flooding through land protection.

Greening The Crossroads: The Green Infrastructure Plan For Central Indiana

After central Indiana was hit by severe flooding in 2008, the Central Indiana Land Trust decided to develop a regional conservation vision with the Fund's help. In 2010, we designed a green infrastructure network that highlights more than 300,000 acres of land in need of protection.

Upper Ouchita National Wildlife Management Area, Louisiana

The Upper Ouachita is the site of the largest floodplain restoration project in the United States. Learn about our efforts to acquire land to add to the Upper Ouachita NWR and help the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service restore forestland to the refuge.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Maryland

The Fund has been working for more than two decades to help Blackwater NWR acquire and restore wetlands and forestland in an effort to deal with rising sea levels and continual flooding.

Reforestation At Marais Des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge

A Q & A with U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist Tim Menard answers questions about our work at the Marais Des Cygnes NWR in Kansas and Missouri. The benefits of our Go Zero program's reforestation efforts here include stabilizing the top soil and slowing the rate of runoff, thereby helping to reduce effects of flooding along the Marais des Cygnes River.

Photo: Banksphoto/iStockphoto.com