Harv's Corner 08/18/2025

Harv's Corner

Make no mistake Global Warming is REAL and those who ingnore it do so at their own peril.
​Harv

Coastal areas restoring marshes, reefs to fight rising seas
By TAMMY WEBBER The Associated Press

GODFREDO A. VASQUEZ - The associated press crew members walk on the pond A2W site as part of the south bay Salt Pond Restoration Project  last month in Mountain View California.

In San Francisco Bay, salt ponds created more than a century ago are reverting to marshland. Along the New York and New Jersey coasts, beaches ravaged by superstorm Sandy underwent extensive restoration.

In Alabama, a rebuilt spit of land is shielding a historic town and providing wildlife habitat.

Coastal communities nationwide are ramping up efforts to fend off rising seas, higher tides and stronger storm surges that are chewing away at coastlines, pushing saltwater farther inland and threatening ecosystems and communities.

The need for coastal restoration has been in the spotlight this month after Louisiana officials canceled a $3 billion project because of objections from the fishing industry and concerns about rising costs.

The Mid- Barataria project was projected to rebuild more than 20 square miles of land over about 50 years by diverting sediment-laden water from the Mississippi River.

But work continues on many other projects in Louisiana and around the country, including barrier islands, saltwater marshes, shellfish reefs and other natural features that provided protection before they were destroyed or degraded by development. Communities are also building flood walls, berms and levees to protect areas that lack adequate natural protection.

The work has become more urgent as climate change causes more intense and destructive storms and leads to sea-level rise that puts hundreds of communities and tens of millions of people at risk, scientists say.

Gulf Coast
In the U.S., perhaps nowhere is more vulnerable than the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast. Louisiana alone has lost more than 2,000 square miles of coastline over the past century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Historically, sediment deposited by the Mississippi and other rivers rebuilt land and nourished shore-buffering marshes. But that function was disrupted by new channels and levees, along with other development.

The dangers were magnified in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina breached flood walls and levees, submerging 80% of New Orleans and killing almost 1,400 people — followed closely by Hurricane Rita.

Afterward, the state formed the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to lessen risks from storm surges and stem land loss. Most of the almost $18 billion spent in the past 20 years was to shore up levees, flood walls and other structures, the authority said.

Pacific Coast
On the West Coast, communities vulnerable to sea-level rise also could see more flooding from increasingly intense atmospheric rivers, which carry water vapor from the ocean and dump huge amounts of rain in a short period of time.

So tidal marshes and estuaries drained for agriculture and industry are being restored along the entire coast, both for habitat and coastal protection.

Habitat restoration, not climate change, was the primary consideration when planning began about 20 years ago to restore marshland along the south end of San Francisco Bay, destroyed when ponds were created to harvest sea salt.

But as sediment naturally fills in ponds and marsh plants return, "we're realizing that ... marshes absorb wave energy, storm surge and the force of high tides," said Dave Halsing, executive project manager at the California State Coastal Conservancy.

Atlantic Coast
Thirteen years after Sandy swamped the Atlantic coast, communities still are restoring natural buffers and building other protective structures.

But the threat of future storm surges could be even greater because sea levels in some areas could rise as much as three feet within 50 years, said Donald E. Cresitello, a coastal engineer and senior coastal planner for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps rebuilt beaches, dunes and human-made structures from Massachusetts to Virginia and now is turning to areas farther inland that are increasingly vulnerable to more powerful storm surges, Cresitello said.

"If there's a river coming to the coast, that storm surge has the potential to just ride up that river," depending on the storm, he said.