>>Wetlands can exist anywhere where there is water, there is favorable soil, and there are plant species that want to be wet.

And you can see that the grasses are high and low, which means that this is a nice, healthy wetland that really loves to be here.

>>Just like a forest, Mary-Carson, you know, has different tropic layers, different levels to it and so wetland seems very similar.

What are the typical plants found in a wetland?

>>Sure, let's take the wetland behind us.

In our low marsh, that's the area that is most frequently inundated with salt water.

So it is just always salty.

We have our spartina patens or our cordgrass, and then in our higher marsh, and even right here, right next to us, we have an Iva species, which is most commonly known as marsh-elder.

>>This neighborhood is over a hundred years old and it's been filled in and built up, and the marsh lands have been filled in.

So how do you recover from that?

>>It's important in our urban communities that we have pocket wetlands like you see here, or fringe wetlands, which are sometimes called living shorelines.

So we're in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and this is a pretty developed place.

We're in the city of Norfolk right now, but it's not unlike our other cities where along our waterways people really wanted to live.

They wanted to expand the land that was available for people's homes or even for farms.

And so people brought in dump trucks of whatever they could find, sand, old soil from agricultural fields and they just dumped all of these materials on top of our creeks.

And if you look behind where you're standing, the creek actually continued through.

And so there's some homes that have been elevated and raised because they are standing on where the creek was before.

And so what we have is this increased impact of flooding because as sea levels rise due to climate change, the water's just returning from whence it came.

So it's especially problematic in this city, in this neighborhood, and in our region because we are experiencing the highest rate of sea level rise on the east coast.

We call it relative sea level rise.

So our land is sinking and the sea is rising and it's happening almost at the same amount, right, so in the past >>Interesting.

Yes.

100 years, we've had 18 inches of sea level rise.

So about a foot and a half and 10 inches is subsidence, which means sinking of the land.

We're sinking because of groundwater withdrawal.

We have a lot of paper plants in this region and they love to suck up water.

We also are dealing with something called isostatic rebound, and where we are situated here in southeastern Virginia, it's actually pushing our land down and causing some rise elsewhere.

>>Unbelievable.

>>So it's a terrible consequence of lots of different things happening.

>>Exactly, in addition to the gulf stream?

>>Yes, as the gulf stream is changing, so it's slowing down and it's kind of spreading out, the water is sort of being spread out, the direction of the spin of the gulf stream is actually pushing water towards southeastern Virginia, which is causing a new, unforeseen additional level of sea level rise.

>>We can't win.

So all of those actions installed, all those flood walls and things installed as we've been constructing and building our communities out are failing.

What would be your suggestion on where we go from here?

>>So the infrastructure issue is such a complicated one.

You have competing interests.

You have a natural interest.

So the plants, we want them to return.

We want to see the presence of shoreline ecosystems because of that water quality health, because of the habitat health.

But you also have a private property interest.

People want to live where they've been living and they have a right to live where they've been living.

And you have a local government interest where the city has made investments in keeping properties on land and servicing those properties.

So they've made investments in utilities.

They've made investments in curbs and gutters and pipes and in asphalt.

So we have a lot of different interests that are in conflict with one another, and they're different groups that are representing each interest.

In our organization, we represent the natural species, of course, we represent the role that wetlands play and the values that they are bringing to us as people and to our earth and our systems and ecosystems.

But we also really understand that there are these human factors that have to be evaluated and assessed and considered anytime you suggest any alternative response.

What I think people forget is that you have to look at things at a much smaller scale than just wholesale sweeping.

Well, you know, let's keep people in place, or let's let wetlands migrate or you know, let's put a flood wall around the whole city.

It doesn't work like that.

You have to have a more nuanced approach that reflects reality, both fiscal, physical, and natural.

And it also, you have to consider people and history and rights and equity and a lived experience that is becoming increasingly difficult to weigh when you're talking about federal investments and big infrastructure that may not care.

>>It sounds like education is key.

Education to educate our homeowners, our communities so that we can start recognizing the role these wetlands play, not just in the environment, but holistically across the board.

>>Right.

Yes.

Education is huge.

And I think that we're so invested in this work because it is so important for children to recognize that wetlands play this important ecosystem function.

They are the most productive and impactful natural resource that we have on the planet.

And people think that, you know, it's a place to put trash and that it's, you know, stinky and that it's snake-infested and all this sort of stuff when it is the heart of our natural system.

And it's, you know, it's the only way in which we're going to have an economic future that's comparable to what we've experienced because of the impact to fisheries.

90% of fin and shellfish spend a portion of their lifecycle in tidal wetlands.

90%.

>>That's amazing.

>>So without this nursery, without this ability to grow up our babies of the sea, there will be no fishing, there'll be no food to eat.

You know, it's not just an economic thing.

This is a lifestyle thing, it's a health thing.

So pretty obvious that the impacts will be widely felt and catastrophic.

So we appreciate the opportunity to even show people that that's the connection that we're trying to make.

>>Well, Mary-Carson, we really appreciate you taking the time to share with us the importance that wetlands play, the important role it plays, and how it's not just a place for water and grass to grow, but that it serves such an important role in our ecosystem and in our community, and how much we need to learn more to be able to balance everything that's happening.

So thank you.

>>Thank you.