To the CARB Board:I am writing to express support for the
California Air Resources Board (CARB) 2022 Climate Change Scoping
Plan.Please work to restore our coastal habitats to stave off
severe droughts, by working with nature-based solutions.
Specifically, I ask CARB to:• Restore at least 60,000 acres of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to provide flood mitigation, water
quality, and *increase* biodiversity benefits to the region and
state.• Include management strategies for ALL of the state's
coastal wetlands, including San Francisco Bay, Eel River Estuary,
and Humboldt Bay, and the sloughs and pocket estuaries found along
the central and south coasts.• Improve accounting for coastal
wetlands, including tidal marsh, scrub-shrub, swamps, and seagrass,
in the state.California has lost an estimated 90% of its wetlands
after decades of diking, draining, dredging, damming, development,
and other impacts. Sea levels willl rise, accelerating this loss if
eelgrass beds, tidal marsh, and other coastal habitats are unable
to migrate shoreward.These losses harm wildlife and people alike.
Coastal wetlands sustain resource- and recreation-dependent coastal
people and economies, protect cultural resources, improve water
quality, and reduce flooding. And the climate benefit of coastal
wetlands can have a flipside: Their destruction releases this
stored carbon back into the atmosphere. I thank CARB for developing
the draft 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan and formally recognizing
the role of natural and working lands in this plan. Do not miss the
opportunity to protect and expand the state's blue carbon sinks by
including strong measures for ALL of the state's coastal wetlands.
Thank you for your time and consideration of this important
issue.Life-long Californian,Sincerely,
Jennifer Taylor
Arcata, California 95521
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