A Look at the Unfunded Need for Resiliency
- Home
- /
- Communities in Action
- /
- The Unfunded Need
Flood Recovery and resilience needs
In the high waters of the December 2025 atmospheric river flooding, local communities and tribes across the flood impact area in Washington State shared over $600 million in unmet, actionable flood recovery and resilience investments. The dashboard describes these needs – you may interact with the projects and filters to see project type, investment level, and to better understand where and how local communities and tribes have identified actions to mitigate future flood risk and recovery costs. This list may expand both within December 2025 flood impact areas and potentially outside of them as additional priorities are added.
Quick View
FBD Spotlight
Merle Jefferson
Nooksack River
“Funding will offer improved flood protection to the Lummi Indian Reservation and surrounding communities, will offer opportunities to address and meaningfully integrate flood risk reduction with salmon habitat needs and the needs of working floodplains, and will directly support some of the salmon habitat restoration projects necessary to advance the recovery of salmon in the Nooksack River.”
Growing a Washington State Nature-Based Solutions Pipeline
Nature-based solutions can reduce flood risk, restore critical habitat, and build long-term resilience in the face of climate change.
With funding from FEMA Region X through a Cooperating Technical Partnership, American Rivers, Bonneville Environmental Foundation and Tetra Tech worked closely with willing Tribes, local jurisdictions, special purpose districts, and NGOs to identify and map unfunded nature-based flood hazard mitigation opportunities, plans, and projects over the short (0-2 years), mid (2-4 years), and long term (4+ years). This Project Pipeline analyzed a variety of eligibility criteria to identify potentially suitable federal and state funding opportunities to support local project proponents and achieve the following goals:
- To tell the story and build the case for investments in a climate-resilient Washington.
- To create connections between agencies who have opportunities to access unanticipated funding and may benefit from seeing the scope and breadth of projects available statewide and local communities interested in advancing work.
- To collaboratively identify and map where future technical and funding assistance may be focused to support Tribes and jurisdictions in accessing climate resilience funding for projects.
The Project Pipeline documented 42 activities across just 12 Tribes, jurisdictions, special purpose districts or NGOs, with the following results:
- Over $450 million in documented need over the next 4+ years
- If funded, 17,500 acres of floodplain would be reconnected
- 50% of activities are located in socially vulnerable or disadvantaged areas according to FEMA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality
Scroll down to view more information about each project included in the Pipeline!
Funding Needs and Impacts for 2025 – 2027 Floodplains by Design Proponents
Washington State’s investments in Floodplains by Design are helping local partners build integrated floodplain management approaches that have profound impacts on making communities safer and healthier. In addition to reducing flood risk, restoring salmon habitat, and increasing agricultural viability, FbD helps communities save $7 in disaster response and recovery costs for $1 invested in mitigation and adaptation.
For the 2025 – 2027 biennium, FbD partners have requested $147 million in funding to implement nature based solutions that will reduce flood risk, restore habitat for endangered species, and create more resilience in the face of climate change. The factsheet below highlights the impacts of the program depending on the level of investment.
Funding Need and Impacts of FbD, 2025 - 2027
In the 2025 – 2027 funding round, the Department of Ecology has requested $84M to support 10 projects across the state. Click on this fact sheet to see how these projects leverage nearly $200M in other funding to bring significant impacts for communities, salmon, and our economy.
