Kentucky conservation organizations are urging lawmakers to allocate more funds to conservation initiatives in the next two year state budget.
Environmental advocacy groups recently gathered at the Kentucky Conservation Committee's annual summit to highlight prospective bills in the General Assembly impacting a wide range of environmental issues, as well as the Commonwealth's lack of funding set aside for conservation initiatives.
Kentucky conservation shortcomings
In a "Kentucky Needs Assessment" from the Nature Conservancy, Kentucky ranks last among peer states for conservation funding with just under $2.4 million allocated to just one conservation funding program. In comparison, Texas ranks first, with more than $250 million allocated to three funding programs.
Nick Hart, a policy director for the Kentucky Waterways Alliance and a board member for the Kentucky Conservation Committee, said investing in Kentucky's conservation initiatives saves dollars and lives.
"The Disaster Resilience Task Force found that for every dollar spent on preparing and flood mitigation, we got back something like $8 to $13 in savings from the impact of a disaster," Hart said. "When we invest in conservation, when we invest in the environment, we're saving our community both the impact of flooding, but also money on the backside of cleaning up."
Kentucky's only conservation funding program, the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund, comes from a combination of the sale of Kentucky nature license plates, unmined mineral tax on coal, and environmental fines. However, Hart says those funds are shrinking annually, and while short-term conservation plans like the state's "greensinks" projects address flood mitigation, a lack of sustainable conservation funding still leaves communities susceptible to disaster.
"While I'm 100% supportive of the greensinks, I also want people to recognize that the decisions we're making now to not protect Kentucky's waterway assets is costing us millions in disaster recovery," Hart said. "We really need to stop trading these short-term gains for speeding up permitting or reducing the cost of permitting for the long-term impact we're going to have when we get flooded out or drown during the next heavy rain event."
Disaster resilience
House Bill 166, introduced by Rep. Lindsey Burke of Lexington, would create the position of Chief Resiliency Officer (CRO) for the Commonwealth.
The new position would lead efforts to plan for disasters and put systems in place to minimize the impacts of disasters when they do occur. According to the measure, the CRO would be appointed by the governor and work in collaboration with the Division of Emergency Management.
According to Rebuild By Design, an initiative by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Kentucky ranks as the most disaster prone state in the U.S. The firm's Atlas of Disaster shows that the Commonwealth has suffered 23 major federally declared disasters over 14 years, 20 of which were due to flooding. In 2024, five of the country's top 10 counties that experienced the most federally declared disasters were in Kentucky.
Hart said the CRO would coordinate disaster preparedness and help Kentucky communities improve their resilience to future disasters, examining their personal risk factors.
"What have they been impacted by? How can they change zoning and planning laws? How can they bring in money to do conservation projects that are going to work to lessen the harm from disasters or remove them from the risk scale? We're all talking about lowering that risk, lowering the impact of disasters on Kentucky counties," Hart said.
If the legislation passes, Kentucky would join 16 other states in establishing chief resiliency officer positions or established resilience offices. Hart said KWA has partnered with the American Flood Coalition to advise Kentucky's Disaster Prevention and Resiliency Task Force on how to move forward with the position's creation.
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