Advancing the practice of engineering with nature is a primary goal for the Engineering With Nature Program, and technology transfer through publications is a critical pathway to achieving this goal. In Season 8, Episode 8, host Sarah Thorne is joined by Amanda Tritinger, Deputy Lead of the Engineering with Nature Program, and Courtney Chambers, Communications Lead for the Engineering With Nature Program. They’re discussing the importance of the Programs’ key publications, including two new ones in 2025.

Publications are critical to advancing the practice and closing the gaps in knowledge. As Amanda says, “They showcase real-world applications of natural infrastructure and inspire others to adopt these strategies in their own projects. By publishing, we make it possible for natural infrastructure to be integrated into more projects and drive innovation across multiple sectors.”  

This episode highlights several examples of innovative EWN Publications, including:

• The EWN Atlas series;
• Natural Infrastructure for Mission Readiness at U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Installations – Also known as “The Navy Playbook”; and
• The Four Coasts Project Idea Handbook – design concepts that incorporate Engineering With Nature from four of the EWN Proving Grounds districts: San Francisco, Mobile, the Great Lakes, and Philadelphia.  

Courtney explains that the Atlas series was born out of a conversation that Todd Bridges, founder of the EWN Program, had with the then USACE Director of Civil Works, James Dalton who suggested that people would understand the key principles of EWN if they could see what they look like in practice. Its success has led to these additional innovative publications.

Hollie Janson Schmidt, National Director of the Planning Group for Advisory Solutions at Jacobs, was the project executive responsible for developing the Navy Playbook with EWN. She joins the conversation and explains that, “The intention of the book is to really be nontechnical and user friendly so that someone could look at some of these sketches and really understand some of the characteristics and the components that we're addressing.” She adds, “It’s just really meant to sort of excite people with the visuals and the beauty of what we were trying to bring forward.”

Mindy Strevig, Managing Engineer at Anchor QEA, leads the collaboration on the development of the Four Coasts Handbook. She also joins the conversation and notes “The goal of the Four Coasts Handbook, is to get those solution concepts visualized and conveyed in a way that folks can continue those conversations through their traditional processes to get these projects funded, garner support, and move them to implementation.

The EWN team continues to promote the work of the EWN Program and its partners through publications like these, as well as through ERDC Tech Notes and Tech Reports, and peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. Amanda stresses that “these publications are invaluable to our practitioners because they provide a strong scientific foundation combined with the real-world application of natural infrastructure. By publishing this work, we ensure that knowledge is shared, lessons are learned, and innovations are being scaled up. These publications are critical to advancing the practice. They’re how we bridge that gap between research and implementation and offer actionable insights.” 

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Amanda Tritinger – LinkedIn
• Courtney Chambers – LinkedIn
• Hollie Janson Schmidt – LinkedIn
• Mindy Strevig – LinkedIn 

Season 8 Episode 7 was originally released as Season 6 Episode 10 in December 2023. Can nature make us happier, healthier and more creative? The simple answer is yes, ... and it’s been scientifically proven. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE),thought this was a perfect time to replay one of our favorite episodes – our conversation with author Florence Williams from S6E10, which originally aired in December 2023. We had a great conversation with Florence about her book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative. Florence, who is a science journalist, author, speaker and podcaster spent over 3 years traveling around the world talking with leading scientists—and taking part in science experiments—focused on quantifying the benefits of nature to people’s health and well-being.

What did she learn? Well, the benefits of Nature are clear—spending more time outdoors is good for our physical health and our mental health. As Florence says, everything from short daily experiences in nature like taking a walk when you take a break at lunch to longer, immersive wilderness experiences like hiking, camping, and nature retreats are all beneficial—she says “we need all of it.” The bottom line is that regular “nature fixes” are literally good for mind, body and soul—and now we have the science to prove it.

Sarah had the opportunity to talk with Florence recently and I asked her how writing The Nature Fix had changed her life.  She said it was “transformative”—it changed her relationship with Nature—which she says continues to be a source of strength, interest, and passion. And it has opened many doors for her leading to host of new opportunities.

We hope you enjoy this encore edition of the EWN Podcast and that it inspires you to take time to get outdoors and take in the health benefits of Nature, even if it is only for a few minutes every day. Who knows, it just could be transformative! Enjoy the show! For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Florence Williams – Naturefix at LinkedIn

Nature is a powerful thing. While hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in 2006, our guest let go of her dream to compete at the 2008 Olympics to pursue a career protecting the environment. In Season 8, Episode 6, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by special guest Robyn DeYoung, who now leads the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Green Infrastructure Program. Through the Green Infrastructure Federal Collaborative, Robyn is bringing federal agencies together to advance nature-based solutions (NBS), including finding ways to streamline permitting and helping communities navigate funding. The Collaborative has just released a best practice guide on Federal Permitting and Environmental Reviews for Nature-Based Solutions and short videos for funding and technical assistance.

Robyn joined the USEPA in 2010 working with states and local governments on clean energy, applying all that she had learned—including the value of teamwork that she learned from field hockey. In her current role as Green Infrastructure program manager, she continues to help people work together: “How can we collaborate and use people’s unique talents—even people that might not agree with you, but have great ideas?”

Green infrastructure can mean different things to different people. As Robyn describes it, “If I’m in a room full of engineers, then green infrastructure means you’re using natural systems—native plants, soils, permeable surfaces—to help with bringing us back to predevelopment hydrology. But for the rest of us, the way that I define green infrastructure is that we’re creating functional green space and other designs so that we can prevent flooding, keep our cities cool, and keep our waters clean using natural processes, using things like rain gardens or street trees.”

Robyn notes that one of the primary functions of EPA’s Green Infrastructure Program is outreach, providing resources to help people understand the economic, environmental and social benefits of green infrastructure, including handbooks for Green Infrastructure Design, peer exchange webinars, and models and tools. “One of the focuses of our program is to make sure that we have free information so people can design, build, maintain, and monitor the green infrastructure in their cities and communities.” 

Looking forward, Robyn notes some of the focus and priorities she sees in the next year, starting with EPA’s 2035 Green Infrastructure Strategic Agenda that her program has been working on. She describes three priority areas: (1) Demonstrating the benefits of green infrastructure in ways that align with the economic, environmental, and social benefits that people value; (2) Connecting more communities to federal funding and technical assistance. And (3) continuing to engage with communities. “We want to do everything we can to bring nature-based solutions into those neighborhoods in a way that they want to use them, that’s culturally relevant, so that they can really take it and run with it.”

Robyn’s call to action is for listeners to learn more about what the Green Infrastructure Program is doing and find out about the resources that are available to support individuals and communities interested in green infrastructure. For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Robyn DeYoung at LinkedIn

Since 1970, the bird population in North America has declined by about 3 billion birds. In Season 8, Episode 5, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by special guest, Dr. Elizabeth Gray, CEO of the National Audubon Society. Elizabeth is an ornithologist and a world-renowned champion of science-based conservation and leads an organization dedicated to protecting birds by altering the course of biodiversity loss. Elizabeth is the first woman CEO of Audubon since its founding in 1905. 

In her lifetime, Elizabeth has seen significant changes in bird populations. “This is just really tragic, and we know two-thirds of those birds are threatened by climate change. When I go out in the field, I see increasing habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. Climate change is a magnifier of all these effects, and birds are indicators of planetary health—really the sentinels and the symbols of how the planet’s doing.”

Audubon’s 5-year strategic plan, called “Flight Plan,” is designed to “bend the bird curve”—to halt, and ultimately reverse, this decline of birds across the Americas by using science; building strong partnerships; and finding solutions that are positive for birds, for people, and for the planet. “We believe that what birds need—clean water, clean air, a healthy food system, a healthy climate—is also what people need.” Elizabeth notes how these efforts continue a tradition going back to the early 1900s when Audubon began protecting one of the last Reddish Egret rookeries. These efforts grew into Audubon’s Coastal Bird Stewardship program, which now has over 500 sites in coastal areas, 1500 volunteers, and 250 partner organizations.

Collaboration and partnerships are key to addressing these complex and interconnected issues and Audubon is well known for bringing together unlikely partners, industry, local communities, policy makers, decision-makers, government officials, Indigenous communities, and other conservation organizations. “We often have different priorities, but we’ve found that you can get people who have different priorities, even different values, certainly different approaches, to sit at a table if you can align around the outcome that you want to achieve together.” She adds that birds are Audubon’s “superpower.” “Birds don’t pay attention to geographic boundaries. They don’t pay attention to what divides people or countries and things like that. They’re really the ultimate unifier here. And I think to me, birds remind us of our shared humanity and the fact that we really share this planet.”

Nature-based solutions (NBS) play a key role in Audubon’s efforts. As Elizabeth notes, NBS can contribute significant greenhouse gas reductions through protecting, restoring, and appropriately managing natural areas, coastal systems, mangroves, grasslands, and forests while also delivering cobenefits to nature and society. Jeff notes the strong synergy and alignment between the mission of Audubon and the objectives of EWN. “With nature-based solutions, we can create resilience while also enhancing habitat and biodiversity and accomplish many more cobenefits. I see so many things that are complementary here, and I’m just excited about what you’re doing and seeing on the horizon within Audubon.” 

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Elizabeth Gray at LinkedIn 

When we think about the use of nature-based features to increase coastal resilience, the focus is mostly on coasts along the ocean. But what about the Great Lakes? Over the past 10 years, the Great Lakes have experienced both historic high and low lake levels. These extreme fluctuations cause flooding, erosion, and property damage, often putting people living in communities at risk. In Season 8, Episode 4, host Sarah Thorne is joined by Burton Suedel, Research Biologist in the Environmental Laboratory at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and David Bucaro, Chief of the Planning Branch, Chicago District, USACE. They are discussing the important work underway to make the Great Lakes more resilient to the effects of climate change.

The Great Lakes play a critical role in the heart of North America and are being affected by climate change, including rapidly changing water levels and less ice coverage. There is a complex interaction between the lakes, land, and atmosphere that make it difficult to model the system. As David notes, this creates high levels of uncertainty in long-term projections of lake levels and challenges for making informed, resilient, and adaptable decisions about needed long-term investments.

To help better prepare for these future conditions, David and his colleagues are working with other federal agencies, Tribal nations, state and local governments and academic partners, to identify the full range of Great Lakes water levels, wave heights, and ice conditions under a range of plausible climate change scenarios. This is the focus of the 6-year, $14M Great Lakes Coastal Resilience Study (GLCRS), a regional partnership to create a strategy that identifies vulnerable coastal areas and offers an array of potential actions that can be taken to bolster the built natural coastal environments.

The first step was the development of a shared vision and a basin-wide assessment of vulnerabilities looking at existing populations, infrastructure, habitat, land use, and socially vulnerable populations across all of the Great Lakes coasts. This effort will help communities better understand the frequency and impacts of various climate scenarios and will provide detailed information for planners and engineers, including an assessment of “hotspot areas” more vulnerable to future conditions. The next step will be to identify specific actions for the hotspot areas, which may include a combination of monitoring and further study. The final step will be to produce the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Plan, which will include strategic recommendations and prioritize actions for USACE, other federal agencies, states, locals, and other nonfederal interests.

This effort is complemented by the work that Burton and his team are doing on The Great Lakes Natural and Nature-Based Features Playbook, which is intended to develop new conceptual nature-based designs specific to the Great Lakes that will achieve greater resiliency and adaptability to climate change. The Playbook is intended to be used by planners and NBS practitioners within and outside of USACE to support the planning-level cost-benefit analyses. David and Burton hope the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Plan and the EWN Playbook will benefit other regions and advance the practice of NBS.

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Burton Suedel at LinkedIn
• David Bucaro at LinkedIn 

In Season 8, Episode 3, host Sarah Thorne and Amanda Tritinger, Deputy National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Brian Davis, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia (UVA), and Cathy Johnson, Coastal Ecologist, Northeast Region, National Park Service (NPS). Along with their colleagues and collaborators, Brian and Cathy are working with nature and incorporating innovative nature-based solutions (NBS) to combat the significant effects of climate change on three coastal national parks at high risk for extreme storms and rising sea levels.

Brian is passionate about the opportunity that NBS provides to protect natural resources, while also designing for people—protecting the things we value and the way we use public spaces. “Traditionally a lot of design practices saw those two things as separate. One of the amazing things that’s happening through landscape architecture and EWN and NBS is to unify those things.

Cathy is passionate about the NPS’s dual mandate of conserving natural resources and preserving cultural resources. “I feel so lucky to work here to preserve values of the NPS for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.” Cathy notes that NPS’s challenging mandate is made all the more difficult by climate change and its broad scale impacts, especially along the coast. 

About three years ago, Brian and Cathy formed the Preserving Coastal Parklands Team. The idea was to bring together designers and scientists, as well as engineers and other subject matter experts that could work with NPS in these different contexts and develop new nature-based solutions. Brian and Cathy describe projects that they worked on located at the Colonial National Historical Park, Assateague Island National Seashore, and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park.

Asked what they have learned from their experience, both Brian and Cathy note the value of collaboration. “One of the key lessons that we took away” Brian says, “was the value of being able to work with and listen to the people that are managing the landscape—especially the Park staff, but it also other special interest groups, people that go out there for particular reasons, or have some stake in the future of the place and some ideas about it.”

Amanda reflects on how these examples of NBS can be used by others: “What you and your team are building is a framework for how to approach these issues to achieve the compromise of these multiple needs and multiple benefits. You are creating a framework that ideally could be picked up by others in similar situations.”

When asked for their calls to action to listeners, Cathy encouraged people to “Visit your parks and the other natural places around you to better understand what’s at risk from climate change and talk to other folks about it.” Brian’s call to action is one of optimism: “Sometimes, especially studying climate change, the scale of the problem can seem daunting. But just being out in these landscapes—meeting the people that work in them and visit them—leads to ideas about preserving those values and understanding better what’s possible in the future. That fills me with optimism.”

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn
• Brian Davis at UVA
• Cathy Johnson at ResearchGate 

In Season 8, Episode 2, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, USACE, welcome back Dr. Christopher Lemon, a physician and Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine; Faculty Codirector of Clinical Programs with the Institute for Planetary Health; and Fellow with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In Episode 1, we talked with Chris about his journey to becoming a medical doctor and an expert and thought leader in the emerging field of planetary health. In this episode, we focus on Chris’s association with the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA) and how he and PHA are helping people understand and adapt to the changing conditions posed by climate change and encouraging people to take action.

As an emergency physician, Chris is attuned to the need to take action. Noting the impacts of climate change—extreme heat, weather, drought, flooding, and disease—Chris contends that all these complicated situations boil down to the fact that Humanity is a part of this planet and that we will all be affected, “If you care about yourself, if you care about the health of your family and your loved ones, you need to act now because there is no question everyone is going to be impacted by climate change.”

Citing The 2023 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, he describes troubling trends such as heat-related deaths of adults over 65 rising by over 80% percent since the 1990s; increased frequency of heat waves and droughts in recent decades, associated with roughly 127 million more people experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity; and new locations now suitable for the transmission of deadly infections. “These impacts could be an early sign of the future that we have in store. I think we’re facing a scenario where things could be potentially catastrophic, and that also means to our health.”

Much of Chris’s efforts in this area is through his association with the PHA, a consortium of more than 450 universities, nongovernment organizations, research institutes, and government entities from more than 75 countries around the world. Launched in 2015, Chris defines Planetary health as “a solutions-oriented transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions on Earth’s natural systems and how that will eventually impact human health, as well as all life on Earth.” Essential to planetary health is the understanding that it’s not just climate change, it’s ‘everything change,’ encompassing the other ways our natural systems are destabilizing due to human influence, such as biodiversity loss, pollution, land use change, water scarcity, nutrient overloading, and marine degradation.

Looking to the future, Chris is excited about the growing movement toward planetary health. His call to action is for listeners go to the PHA website and become a part of the growing community. “This is not a website where you join and it’s just an email that comes out every so often. This alliance is a decentralized community for all stakeholders. We would love to interact and engage with you where you stand. I bet you have a superpower and an expertise that we need in the global community right now.”

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Christopher Lemon at LinkedIn

After another summer of sweltering heat, extreme flooding, and in several places, unprecedented forest fires, we're thinking even more about climate change and about the nexus of climate change and health. In S8 E1, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Dr. Christopher Lemon, a physician and Asst. Professor, Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine; Faculty Co-Director of Clinical Programs with the JH Institute for Planetary Health; and Fellow with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the JH Bloomberg School of Public Health. Experts project that over 3 billion people are already vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Chris is using what he calls his “superpowers” to assess how climate change is affecting people's health around the world and take action. He's passionate about making a difference in his community and across the planet.

Chris and Jeff met at a conference at the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center where Chris gave a presentation on Climate Change and Global Health. For Chris, the conference was an opportunity to get in front of an audience with different backgrounds but a common interest. “We started to pick up on the mental or physical health implications of some of the EWN projects at military installations. Pretty quickly it became this great synergy of how I bring certain things to the table as part of these complex solutions.” Jeff agrees and notes the magnitude of the opportunity. “These military installations are a wonderful opportunity – across 25 million acres of land – to do something positive for the employees at the installations, the military personnel, and the communities adjacent to military installations. They all can benefit from this interaction with nature.”

Chris compares his experiences in healthcare, particularly with COVID, to the coming challenges he sees with climate change and discusses the alignment of healthcare with EWN. In both, the “traditional” approach has often been to try to control nature to an ever-increasing degree. “Right now, US healthcare contributes roughly 8.5 percent of US emissions. So, we are ‘doing no harm’ with the goal of making people healthy; and yet, ironically, because we're not working within the constructs of nature anymore, we're actually making people unhealthy.” It is this more macro view of climate change and public health that Chris is trying to address at the Institute for Planetary Health. “It focuses on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions on Earth's natural systems. But importantly, those disruptions have impacts on human health and all life on Earth. We are bringing that into the center of the conversation.

Chris’s story resonates with Jeff and what he is seeing and striving for in the EWN community: “Chris, I admire the energy and enthusiasm with which you approach the challenge of planetary health. It's quite evident that you have so much knowledge to share, as well as the energy to make change a reality.” Jeff and Sarah invited Chris back to talk more about the important work being done by the Planetary Health Alliance, a growing consortium of over 450 universities, NGOs, research institutes, and government entities who are committed to understanding and addressing the impacts of global environmental change on human health and wellbeing. Our conversation with Chris continues in Episode 2 on October 9. We hope you enjoy these special episodes!

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Christopher Lemon at LinkedIn

As summer wanes and we celebrate back-to-school time with students, parents, and our friends in academia, we’re pleased to launch Season 8 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast! Host Sarah Thorne recently caught up with Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, to discuss what the EWN Team has been up to over the summer, share some highlights from Season 7, and offer a glimpse of what’s ahead in Season 8.

As Jeff describes, the EWN Team has had a busy summer extending the reach of EWN by collaborating with engineering and landscape architect colleagues and working with the EWN Proving Grounds leads on larger, more ambitious projects. “We’ve started to envision really large EWN projects that will be pursued at a systems level so that we can maximize the function and benefits that can be derived from these projects. I'm really excited about having an opportunity to publish these as ‘EWN Playbooks’ and have them available soon.” 

The EWN Team is also growing. Steven Bailey, a landscape architect, recently joined the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). His hire reflects the growing importance of landscape architecture in EWN. And continuing EWN’s tradition of training the next generation of EWN practitioners, Claire Middendorf, an Environmental and Ecological Engineering student at Purdue University, completed a summer internship working with Burton Suedel, one of our frequent EWN Podcast hosts.

Jeff is encouraged, and excited about the progress of EWN more broadly within USACE on the contribution EWN and NBS are making to the navigation, flood risk management, and ecosystem restoration missions. “Many elements within the USACE are now focused on NBS and wanting to have NBS be prioritized across all of our business lines. The conversations we're having are focused on what can we do as an organization to accelerate implementation of NBS.”

Jeff and the EWN Team continued outreach to external partners to expand opportunities for integration of NBS. They have been reaching out to colleagues in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US and internationally to colleagues with the Environmental Agency in the United Kingdom and the Rijkswaterstaat, which is responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the Netherlands’ primary infrastructure facilities. 

The theme for Season 8 is Channeling the Energy. That Jeff explains is inspired by the energy and excitement in the conversations that he has with all the EWN and NBS practitioners, collaborators and educators that he meets. “It's that energy, and it's very contagious. So, that's our theme – channeling the energy.” Listeners can expect another great lineup of episodes in Season 8, including topics such as the nexus of climate change and health, climate policy initiatives being driven by NOAA, how the Navy is incorporating NBS into their plans and projects, and some of the groundbreaking work being done by our EWN colleagues in both the policy and program areas.

Mark your calendar for the launch of Season 8 on September 25! In Season 8, Episode 1, we’re speaking with Dr. Chris Lemon, Johns Hopkins Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, and Fellow of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. We focus on Chris’s journey into climate change and global health challenges. We hope you’ll tune in.

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Sarah Thorne at LinkedIn
• Dave Trafford at LinkedIn

The Arctic is changing more rapidly than anywhere else on earth due to climate change, and this is profoundly impacting the people that live in and depend on the ecosystems in these cold regions. In Season 7, Episode 13, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), welcome back Laura Wendling, Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Community in Trondheim, Norway. We continue our conversation on how innovative nature-based solutions (NBS) are being used in cold regions. 

After recording Episode 12, Laura was headed to the Gaia Arctic Summit held in Vesterålen in Northern Norway. The summit focused on how to accelerate the transition to climate resilience in the Arctic. She returned inspired: “It was fabulous from start to finish. The landscape there is absolutely stunning, and I think seeing it really brought home how important it is that we protect this beautiful area and the people who live there.” The summit brought together people from policy, finance, business, research and innovation, and public administration. “The main message for me is the need to collaborate across disciplines in how we work every day—not just having a meeting once a year but how we work in our daily life and how we plan things.”

Laura goes on to discuss the policies, challenges, and opportunities for advancing NBS in cold regions and some of the efforts going on in Europe. She notes that there is strong explicit support for NBS within the European Green Deal and associated strategies such as the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030—policies designed to set goals to deliver on international commitments. One of the challenges that Laura notes is aligning policy at various levels, from the high-level European national policies to those on the ground at the local level. Jeff notes a similar challenge in the US: “Even those individuals or organizations that are receptive to the idea of NBS still have their own set of policies, rules, or regulations that they must adhere to and sometimes those can be contrary to the overall goal of integrating NBS into a landscape. We must find that common ground and be able to highlight the value of NBS and what that means for local economies, sustainability, and resilience.”

Laura also notes challenges in valuing NBS and making trade-offs are particularly evident in the Arctic. “Where we see the sea ice dissolving and opening up new transport routes and revealing previously unknown mineral resources, there are all sorts of development possibilities. How do we ensure that the Arctic is developing in a way that’s consistent with the needs and desires of the local populations?”

Looking forward, Jeff highlights the ongoing work at ERDC’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. “We are continuing to prioritize NBS and look for opportunities to integrate NBS concepts and projects into our Arctic communities. International collaboration is something that I want to see EWN continue to support.” Laura agrees with this effort and has a call to action for listeners: “I would ask everybody listening—our global community—to think about a consolidated action plan to engage the full range of stakeholders and move across borders to address the issues of climate change because climate change doesn’t stop at borders. We all have to work together. Only global action is going to have the outcome that we all need.”

We hope you enjoy our final Season 7 episodes on NBS in cold regions with Laura Wendling. Season 8 kicks off in September. For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

•      Jeff King at LinkedIn
•      Laura Wendling at LinkedIn