Surfrider Washington at the 2025 Coastal Hazards Resilience Network Annual Meeting
Last week, Surfrider Foundation Washington had the opportunity to participate in the 2025 Coastal Hazards Resilience Network (CHRN) Annual Meeting—an important gathering of researchers, practitioners, Tribal representatives, agency staff, and community-based organizations working to build coastal resilience across the Pacific Northwest.
Held in Lacey, the theme of this year’s meeting was “empowering practitioners and communities to creatively navigate uncertainties and holistically address coastal climate resilience challenges,” with a focus on knowledge sharing and networking.
The agenda included a packed schedule of presentations, panels, and breakout discussions on nature-based solutions, community-led adaptation, proactive relocation of vulnerable infrastructure, data and modeling, and coastal resilience planning. Surfrider Washington attended the full-day event to connect with partners and collaborate across disciplines to learn how best we can align our work at the intersection of climate resilience, coastal access, and environmental justice.
One takeaway was the need for federal funds to support resilience projects along the Pacific Coast and Olympic Peninsula. These small coastal communities lack the funding and expertise needed to combat the complex and large-scale threats to infrastructure and critical habitat caused by rising seas and worsening storms. Our federal advocacy to demand Congress fund and support agencies like NOAA, and halt continued investment in offshore drilling, is more important now than ever.
It was heartening to see our coastal victory from two years ago, HB 1181, being implemented in real time. This bill was a long-overdue update to the Growth Management Act, one aspect of which was that cities and counties in Washington must include climate change in their land use planning, including sea level rise. While there are no easy solutions, one fact is clear: every dollar we spend preparing and planning for climate change is worth ten times the cost of inaction.
Participants gathered around a breakout table, working on a resilience and adaptation exercise to identify solutions to coastal flooding in SW Washington.
From sea level rise to stronger storms to the erosion of our beaches, Washington’s coasts are facing urgent threats that require creative and collaborative action. This convening reaffirmed that true resilience isn’t just about infrastructure or modeling—it’s about people. It’s about ensuring frontline communities have the resources, power, and platform to lead in shaping their futures. We left the meeting more committed than ever to ensuring coastal recreation, access, and ecological health are part of the conversation—and the solution.
Thank you to the CHRN team, UW Climate Impacts Group, Washington Sea Grant, and all the organizers for continuing to provide this important opportunity to connect, share, and collaborate. We look forward to continuing to build a stronger, more resilient coastal Washington—together.