TransRe and NFWF Announce New Conservation Partnership to Support Coastal Resilience, Protecting Local Communities and Enhancing Natural Habitats

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 9, 2018) – TransRe and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) today announced that TransRe has made a multi-year commitment to support the National Coastal Resilience Fund (NCRF). The fund will restore, increase and strengthen natural infrastructure — the natural features that help absorb the impacts of storms and floods — to reduce risks to coastal communities while also enhancing habitats for fish and wildlife. 

In its initial year, TransRe will support three projects that will benefit local communities and natural resources. 

“The self-resilience of communities starts with practical plans, agreed locally and executed by locals for locals,” said Mike Sapnar, President & CEO of TransRe. “Living shorelines are vital, natural barriers to inundation. These are the first three of many projects to help ‘harden’ our natural defenses and we hope these NCRF grants will help save lives, money, jobs and communities in the years ahead.”

“TransRe deals with the impacts of natural disasters on local communities every day, so to have their support for the National Coastal Resilience Fund means a great deal,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “Healthy natural habitats protect coastal communities, and we look forward to working closely with TransRe to build stronger resilience along our nation’s shores.”

Earlier today, NFWF announced $28.9 million in grant awards from the National Coastal Resilience Fund that will fund the restoration or expansion of coastal marshes and wetlands, dune and beach systems, oyster and coral reefs, forests, coastal rivers, and barrier islands that minimize the impacts of storms and other naturally occurring events on nearby communities.

NFWF and TransRe will remain focused on investments that have been prioritized in existing community or regional resilience plans, building on the significant coordination and planning that already has been done in many of the nation’s coastal communities. 

The three projects supported by TransRe this year are:

New York: Managed Retreat and Ecological Restoration of Southern Mastic Beach 

• The Town of Brookhaven will design and prepare for the restoration of coastal saltmarsh and other key habitats along southern Mastic Beach in New York. These natural areas will provide a buffer from future flooding for inland residential communities. The town already has instituted an extensive buy-out program to acquire and remove homes located in high-risk flood areas, as part of a managed retreat program. Beyond enhancing the local community, this innovative managed restoration approach will serve as a model for other developed coastal communities that are facing similar issues.

North Carolina: Living Shorelines for North Carolina Coastal Communities

• North Carolina Coastal Federation will construct living shorelines at two coastal locations in North Carolina to protect the entrance channels of harbors and historic shorelines. Research conducted at University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences after hurricanes showed that living shorelines fared better than bulkheads in preventing erosion and attenuating wave energy. More than 75 percent of bulkheads surveyed showed damage or failure, but none of the living shorelines were destroyed. The project will naturally stabilize and protect the eroding shorelines to maintain existing navigation channels, prevent flooding and build fishery habitats in Carteret and Pamlico counties. 

South Carolina: Habitat Restoration of Crab Bank Island Seabird Sanctuary to Protect Coastal Shorelines 

• Audubon South Carolina will restore Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary, a critical nesting island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The project will protect 1.5 miles of coastal property and provide 28 acres of suitable nesting habitat for brown pelicans, royal terns, black skimmers, American oystercatchers and other seabird and shorebird species. In early 2019, the US Army Corps of Engineers will dredge Charleston Harbor to make room for larger container ships. This will create the opportunity for Audubon South Carolina to deposit clean, high-quality dredged sand on Crab Bank to restore the island and make the Town of Mount Pleasant more resilient to future storms.

For additional information on the NCRF, please see this link.

For additional information on all 35 grants made this year, please see this link. 

For additional information on TransRe’s commitment to social good, please see this link.

About TransRe
TransRe is the brand name for Transatlantic Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries (including Transatlantic Reinsurance Company). TransRe, wholly owned by Alleghany Corporation (NYSE-Y), is a reinsurance organization headquartered in New York with operations worldwide. Since 1977, TransRe has offered its clients the capacity, expertise and creativity necessary to structure programs across the full spectrum of property and casualty risks. Visit www.transre.com for additional information.

About the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Chartered by Congress in 1984, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) protects and restores the nation’s fish, wildlife, plants and habitats. Working with federal, corporate and individual partners, NFWF has funded more than 4,500 organizations and generated a conservation impact of more than $4.8 billion. Learn more at www.nfwf.org.

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