Off the coast of Wilmington, NC, the Battleship North Carolina team has turned to innovative natural solutions to protect the ship from frequent flooding and rising sea levels. The battleship was moved to Wilmington in 1961 and now serves as a memorial to the 11,000+ North Carolinians who died in World War II. A visitor center, guided and self-guided tours and a boardwalk built around the ship offer visitors many ways to explore and engage with the ship and its surroundings. In 2015, leadership at the battleship started to notice that access to the ship was being impacted more and more often by flooding on the road leading to the site and in the parking lot. After crunching the numbers in a historic trend analysis from the 1940s through 2020, development director Terry DeMeo made a big discovery. “The results showed an over 7,000% increase in tidal flooding since the battleship arrived in Wilmington in 1961.” A flooded roadway and flooded parking lot meant visitors were unable t...