Wildlife Preserve Shows Effect of Global Warming

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Tuesday March 13 9:53 AM ET Wildlife Preserve Shows Effect of Global Warming By Alan Elsner, National Correspondent BLACKWATER NATURE REFUGE, Maryland (Reuters) - Anyone who questions the potential impact of global warming should visit the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, where rising waters are rapidly destroying a precious marsh habitat. Located near the shores of Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, the preserve is like a natural laboratory where processes that threaten to sweep the world in the course of the 21st century are already plain to see. ``Blackwater gives us an example of what will probably occur in a lot of low-lying areas as global warming proceeds and water levels continue to rise,'' said environmental scientist J. Court Stevenson of the University of Maryland's Horn Point Laboratory, who has been studying the swampy preserve for the past 20 years. ``If we don't do anything about global greenhouse emissions, up to a third of this county where we're standing now will eventually become open water,'' he said. ``We need to get organized now. Our policies are so lame. And now we have a new president (George W. Bush) who really doesn't believe global warming is an issue. He should come here.'' Blackwater comprises around 17,000 acres (6,900 ha) of wetlands, woodlands and croplands. But 7,000 acres (2,800 ha) of marshland are already flooded and the rising waters claim another 125 acres (50 ha) each year. The Blackwater and Little Blackwater Rivers, which run through the refuge on their way to the bay, are turning salty. Tiny island sanctuaries for bald eagles are disappearing and pines and grasses are dying. The process is accelerated by a gradual sinking of the landmass under eastern Maryland, which bulged up during the last ice age, over-pumping of water from the underground aquifer and over-grazing of plant life by muskrat and nutria, a South American rodent introduced to the region a century ago. ``One third of this area is forest, one third is marsh and one third is open water, most of which shouldn't be here as far as I'm concerned,'' said John Morton, supervisory wildlife biologist at the preserve. 'Like Little Dutch Boy With Finger In The Dyke' ``We're working with the Army Corps of Engineers to slow or stop the process with marshland restoration and some other quick fixes, but I feel like the little Dutch boy with his finger stuck in the dyke,'' Morton said. Politicians still argue about the causes and cures for global warming, but few scientists dispute that the burning of fossil fuels has led to a speedy rise in land temperatures that is melting glaciers and polar ice sheets. What is happening now in Blackwater, a critical habitat for bird and animal species and a spawning area for aquatic life, will soon impact much of the U.S. coastline. The Environmental Protection Agency says the sea level is rising faster along U.S. coasts than the worldwide average, and fastest of all in Chesapeake Bay. Along the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, it says, a one-foot (30 cm) rise in the sea level is likely by 2050 but could occur as early as 2025. That would increase the size of the 100-year floodplain from 19,500 square miles (50,000 sq. km) to 23,000 square miles (60,000 sq. km) and increase flood damage by 36-58 percent. low-lying cities such as Boston, New York, Charleston, Miami, and New Orleans would become vulnerable to regular flooding. In the nation's capital, a study published by the Environmental Defense Fund suggested that major storms could turn the Jefferson Memorial into an island, cut off museums, encircle the Washington Monument and send muddy waters lapping up to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. At Newport News, Virginia, the EPA says the sea level could rise by 23.3 inches (59 cm) by 2100. In Delaware, it says, a rise in the sea level will lead to beach erosion, flooding of coastal property, loss of wetlands and contamination of drinking water while destroying spawning grounds for the horseshoe crab. In Florida the sea level is seen rising 12-20 inches (30-50 cm) by 2100. The likely impact: loss of land, structures and wildlife habitat and increased flooding and salination of rivers, bays and aquifers, threatening the water supply. Stevenson has studied documents dating back to 1670 when land in Blackwater was surveyed and sold by British settlers. At that time the middle of the refuge was an oak forest. Later it became a tobacco farm, but farmers abandoned it in the middle of the 19th century when it began turning into a marsh. 'From Oak Forest To Open Water' ``We've gone in just over three centuries from an oak forest to tobacco, to a freshwater marsh, to a brackish marsh and now it's open water,'' he said. In the middle portion of the Chesapeake Bay, researchers have documented the disappearance of at least 13 islands. Others have lost half or more of their land. Cockey's Island -- gone; Herring -- gone; Powell and Punch -- gone. Sharps Island -- described and mapped in 1608 by Captain John Smith, whose name lives in history and a Disney movie because his life was saved by Indian princess Pocahontas -- still showed up on maps and charts at the beginning of the 20th century. Now it is under 10 feet (3 meters) of water. ``The islands represent a unique ecosystem. Many waterfowl depend on them for nesting sites,'' said John Gill, manager for the Chesapeake Islands Unit of the Blackwater Refuge. ``They shelter aquatic vegetation, which fish and crabs use for spawning. If the islands submerge, those beds get blown away and the soft-shell crab industry that Maryland is famous for goes down the tubes.'' Gill wants to protect the islands with breakwaters and dump sediment in quiet water he would create along the shoreline. That might stabilize the islands for a century or two. ``There are short-term fixes. The question is, what are the long-term fixes?'' Morton asked. Stevenson also worries about the long term. ``Blackwater is telling us something but we're not listening,'' he said. ``I'm not going to live to see most of the really bad things that are going to happen. Most people alive today won't live to see them. But their children and their grandchildren will.''

-- K. (infosurf@yahoo.com), March 14, 2001


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