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Conservation & Climate Adaptation Efforts
Welcome to North Kingstown’s Conservation & Climate Adaptation hub — your central resource for understanding how our town is stewarding its natural landscapes and planning for the impacts of climate change. As a coastal community with rich wildlife, open spaces, and critical infrastructure, we are proactively addressing environmental challenges and building resilience through thoughtful, science-based action. Conservation and Climate Adaptation strategies safeguard our coastline, water, wildlife, and community infrastructure — today and for generations to come.
Explore Pages
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Climate Adaptation
Information about climate adaptation in North Kingstown and the Town's partnership with The University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center
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Local Conservation Groups
This page features a list of conservation groups local to the North Kingstown / Rhode Island area.
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Residential Composting
Residential composting is a great way to turn yard and food waste into a valuable soil amendment, providing nutrients to your yard and reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfill.
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Residential Stormwater Solutions
Implementing home stormwater solutions can reduce flooding and improve local water quality. This page shares simple steps to get started.
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Resilience Projects
Check out the latest resiliency projects that are underway or completed in North Kingstown and the surrounding area.
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Tools & Applications
Explore helpful tools to access climate resilience and stormwater information for you, your business, or your community.
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Trees & Mulching
Trees are essential infrastructure for a resilient and thriving community. This page provides information about trees, street trees, and mulching around trees.
Open the Tabs Below to Explore Climate Resilience Issues & Solutions
Being a shoreline community, there many coastal, environmental issues that impact North Kingstown. The RI CRMC regulates many of the activities that take place along the shoreline. Their regulations are primarily found in their "Red Book", also referenced below under wetlands. The Red Book includes policies and regulations necessary to manage the coastal resources of the state and to provide for the integration and coordination of the protection of natural resources, the promotion of reasonable coastal-dependent economic growth, and the improved protection of life and property from coastal hazards.
The RI CRMC also has several special area managements plans for different part of the state. Locally, the Narrow River Special Area Management Plan describes the present status of the river, characterizes its watershed, identifies sources of pollution, and recommends specific actions to restore, protect and preserve the highly regarded natural resource in the Narrow River. The RIDEM has developed the Narrow River Watershed Plan (Draft) that has been out for public comment for several weeks. The plans is intended to guide actions to protect and restore the quality of the water resources and aquatic habitats in the Narrow River watershed. The plan includes a description of the water resource conditions as well as the pollutants, other stressors and threats to water resources. It also includes a history of key actions that have been taken to protect and improve the water resources in the watershed.
Work with nature, not against it.
Eco gardening focuses on maintaining the natural balance of your landscape rather than removing parts of it. By supporting local plants, insects, and wildlife, you can create a healthier, more resilient yard that benefits the entire ecosystem.
Key Practices:
Reduce Your Lawn
- Replace lawn areas with native plantings or rain gardens.
- Create mulch borders around trees.
- Allow grass to grow naturally and embrace beneficial “weeds.”
Plant Native
- Native plants have evolved with local wildlife.
- They need less water and fertilizer.
- They provide essential food and habitat for birds, butterflies, and pollinators.
Leave the Leaves
- Leaves decompose naturally, adding nutrients back into the soil.
- Leaf litter provides habitat for fireflies, insects, and ground-dwelling wildlife.
- Birds rely on insects found in leaf litter as a food source.
The Town of North Kingstown has a strong groundwater protection program. The groundwater underlying the town is the sole source of its existing and future drinking water supply. Please see the Water Department's page for additional information.
The RIDEM also regulates water quality for the state. Their water quality web site includes how they protect and regulate groundwater, surface water as well as wetlands.
The Town of North Kingstown has a long-standing land conservation and open space protection program. The Open Space Map shows all of this protected land.
There are approximately 8,300 acres of land preserved as open space through such mechanisms as residential compound development, cluster development, planned village development and public spaces including the Town Beach, Ryan Park, Rome Point, Wilson Park, Cocumscussoc State Park, Calf Pasture Point and the municipal golf course. In total, these represent approximately 30 percent of the Town’s land area. The town also projects property through the purchase of development rights and conservation easements as well as through outright purchase. The Town works collaboratively with several local and state agencies to protect farmland, wetlands, shorelines, woodlands, wildlife, trails, and open spaces of North Kingstown.
From a state perspective, the RIDEM operates a land conservation program as well. This land conservation page provides information on state-wide conservation efforts, grant opportunities as well as the outdoor recreation plan. The RIDEM Map Room provide a wide variety of natural-resource mapping for the entire state.
The Town of North Kingstown comprehensive plan, available above, has specific actions centered around pollinators and pollinator habitats. one of the actions includes developing ways to convert lawns to pollinator habitats including but not limited to incentive programs, working with homeowner associations to convert common open space, and identifying town parks and public lands that could also serve as public education projects. As taken from the plan, pollinator habitats are wildflower plantings that attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies. They can range in scale from a window box to acres of wildflower meadows. Pollinator habitats are an important intervention to mitigate the decline of pollinators due to pesticides, loss of habitat, disease and climate change. The added benefits of pollinator habitats include reduced need for irrigation, fertilizer, and mowing, as well as beautification.
The RIDEM has a pollinator working group that has formed to maintain, protect and enhance pollinator habitat and health in Rhode Island.
North Kingstown is home to a diverse range of agricultural practices. For most of these practices, soil health is an extremely important variable to success. Managing for soil health is one of the most effective ways for farmers to increase crop productivity and profitability while improving the environment.
While there are many ways to adopt soil health management principles, there are four primary strategies:
- Minimize disturbance – till the soil as little as possible or not at all;
- Maximize biodiversity – integrate livestock and grow as many different species of plants as possible through rotations and a diverse mixture of cover crops;
- Maximize living roots – keep living crops and cover crops in the soil as long as possible; and
- Maximize soil cover – keep the soil surface covered with residue and cover crops year-round.
Healthy soils provide economic benefits for farmers and environmental benefits that affect everyone. Please see the documents linked below from the United Stated Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service and American Farmland Trust for more information. The link below is a repository of documents from the USDA and American Farmland Trust, including soil health basics, case studies, and the North Kingstown Soil Health Stewards Action Plan.
The North Kingstown Department of Public Works takes the lead on municipal stormwater systems. Their stormwater web site provides information for homeowner's associations as well as individual homeowners, useful information on understanding stormwater for residents as well as how people should be managing yard waste, and links to helpful stormwater resources.
The RIDEM regulates stormwater for Rhode Island. Their stormwater website provides information as to how they seek to to preserve, protect, and improve the state's water resources from polluted stormwater runoff.
The RIDEM regulates inland freshwater wetland resources in Rhode Island. Their web site provides extensive resources on wetlands such as permitting, frequently asked questions, the wetlands application process, wetlands restoration and wetlands monitoring.
The RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) regulates coastal wetlands in Rhode Island. The Freshwater Wetlands in the Vicinity of the Coast publication explains their jurisdiction. The "Red Book" outlines how CRMC manages the coastal resources of the state and to provide for the integration and coordination of the protection of natural resources, the promotion of reasonable coastal-dependent economic growth, and the improved protection of life and property from coastal hazards, including how they regulate wetlands in their jurisdiction.
North Kingstown is home to a wide variety of wildlife. Many of the areas that are home to this wildlife have been protected by the land conservation measures noted above. The comprehensive plan has a goal of protecting, preserving and restoring natural resources, including wildlife habitat, water quality, scenic and forested landscapes. A healthy ecosystem needs biodiversity and is essential to our clean air, water and food supply. North Kingstown's natural resources include forests, wetlands and salt marshes, surface and groundwater bodies, and wildlife all of which play a key role in providing ecosystem services such as pollination, decomposition, water purification, erosion and flood control, and carbon storage and climate regulation.
The RIDEM Wildlife Action Plan can be viewed on their web site. It provides a comprehensive approach to wildlife conservation in Rhode Island.
Conservation Commission
The Town of North Kingstown has a Conservation Commission to assist us in conservation-related matters. Information regarding their membership is available here: Conservation Commission.