Many of us have heard the term “resilience” used in multiple contexts over the years. After big storms and hurricanes, we hear about making our coasts resilient to damage. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we heard about helping our fisheries and communities become resilient to future disasters. During COVID-19, we’ve heard about making our businesses more resilient to economic hardship, our hospitals more resilient to shortages, and our minds more resilient to stress and isolation. But what does this term really mean and how are we to achieve all of the many facets implied by such a flexible word?
Though the definition of “resilience” has been debated in academic circles, most of us can agree that when we hear the word, we picture endurance. Maybe we think of survival or of recovery, but mostly I suspect we think of just making it through a thing. But making it through doesn’t always mean we’re better off, and it doesn’t mean we’re in it alone. For me, resilience invokes images of community and of support networks and of programs developed to help us all make it through this phase and hopefully start the next one with a better foothold on the future.
Serving coastal communities through resilience programs
Over the last 50 years, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) has developed a number of programs to help our coastal communities and businesses be more resilient to change, whether from storms or spills or pandemics, through self-identification and assessment. If you’ve read our staff blogs, you’ve likely heard about some of these programs on and off. But if you’re anything like me, you rarely think of resilience programs when times are bright. It is my hope that seeing some examples together in one article might not only remind you of these programs but to give you an appreciation of how MASGC has worked to provide support to local businesses, municipalities and communities over the years, and perhaps encourage you to tap into these resources the next time the lights seem dim.
Storm resilience
Down here in the Gulf South, we are vulnerable to not only tropical cyclones and intense afternoon thunderstorms, but also tornadoes. The VORTEX-SE community outreach program is a partnership between MASGC and the National Severe Storms Lab meant to help identify communities at risk of severe damage from tornadoes and strong storms and to help those communities identify shelters and resources to help them weather storms in advance. Contact Tracie Sempier to learn more about coastal storm resilience and the VORTEX-SE program!
Yet, communities can be affected by flooding and wave damage even in-between storms. The PLACE:SLR is a program supported by MASGC and focused on supporting and enhancing sea-level rise resilience in the northern Gulf by working directly with community members and stakeholders to identify vulnerabilities and begin discussions on adaptation strategies.
Resource resilience
Last week you heard from MASGC extension specialist Stephen Deal about the Coastal Zone Management Act and the development of the National Estuarine Research Reserves. It might not say it in the name but make no mistake this long-lived program is resilience driven. Having coastal reserves set aside, free of development, helps MASGC and its funded researchers capture baseline data about our coasts so that we can better understand how these sensitive habitats and their residents were impacted by major events like the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and how restoration programs can help them be more resilient to events in the future.
But it is also important to acknowledge that our habitats need support beyond ecological reserves; that many of our coastal residences have once-pristine habitat at their very gates. The MASGC-supported living shoreline programs are working to educate landowners about the impacts of storms and waves on their shoreline and ways they can protect their property while also contributing toward habitat resilience. Contact Eric Sparks to learn more about these and other habitat protection programs at MASGC!
Seafood resilience
Many of our coastal residents are fans of our local seafood, but many not be aware of the different programs that MASGC has in place to help support the resilience of our seafood supplies and the businesses and communities that rely upon them. For example, the Great Red Snapper Count and the Greater Amberjack Count are two programs that have and will help to assess the strength and resilience of two popular finfish species.
The MASGC-led oyster farmer training programs help to improve the resilience of current and future oyster farmers to both environmental and economic disasters. And the oyster gardening programs in both Mississippi and Alabama look to improve the resilience of native oyster populations and the myriad of coastal species that rely on healthy reefs for their success. Contact staff members Marcus Drymon or Rusty Grice to learn more!
Mental health resilience
Finally, many of us suffered from mental distress, anxiety and fatigue over the last two years of the pandemic. These periods of emotional stress can impact not only our individual health, but also our ability to interact meaningfully with our friends, coworkers and family members. In recognition of our human need to not only be heard but to also lend an ear to our fellow humans, the staff at MASGC reprised a peer-listening training program, first developed in the shadow of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and revised after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, to improve mental resilience amongst the training participants and to help them extend that resilience to their community members around them. To learn more about mental health resilience programs following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and COVID-19, reach out to me!
Most simply, resilience means the ability to recover. To bounce back or even bounce forward. And to be as flexible as the word itself. And that is what we as a coastal community have all been working toward during these past two years of the pandemic and all the many decades before now, so that we may bend in the face of adversity and not break.
Learn more
The above list of resilience programming at MASGC is not exhaustive, so I encourage you to peruse the MASGC website, looking at different programs, focus areas and even staff members to learn how we, as an organization, continue to engage on the topics of resilience in its many forms.
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