Watershed Restoration

Healthy watersheds provide a wide range of services and benefits. Ridge to Reefs uses scientific analysis and local knowledge to target restoration efforts that benefit human and natural communities.

For example, natural and restored growth in high mountain ecosystems holds soils in place. This improves agricultural yields, prevents erosion, and provides habitat for birds and other wildlife.

Moving downstream, wetlands filter water and naturally remove pollutants from runoff. Wetlands and mangroves also sequester carbon from the atmosphere which helps to slow the rate of global climate change. The structure of wetlands, mangroves, and coral reefs all provide physical buffering from storms, absorbing wind and wave energy from the ocean. This buffering reduces flooding impacts and damage to coastal communities. Particularly as storm seasons intensify, the storm protection offered by these types of green infrastructure is increasingly critical.

Each of these ecosystems hosts native wildlife that rely on intact vegetation for food and shelter. The health and function of each component of coastal systems are connected to and rely on each other. Fisherman and tourism operators rely on fish populations in the coral reefs; the coral reefs require clean water to survive; the coral can’t grow without sunlight reaching through the shallow water, which can be blocked by sediment eroding.

The health or degradation of each component of the environment sends cascading effects downstream, impacting human communities and other parts of the natural world. This is just one example of such a chain; there are countless others. Ridge to Reefs works with local communities to design projects that will have the greatest impact protecting and restoring ecosystems.