![]() What is already known is that improving the ecological health of natural areas improves resiliency to habitat change. This National Park Service is among the first to analyze expected sea level changes. She knows the territory and the dynamic nature of land near the immense ocean. In fact, that is the circumstance that gave birth to this National Park.” Taylor grew up in Crisfield, Maryland. We could be slammed in a big way by the next storm. In response to my query about the expected future effect of sea level rise on this National Seashore, National Park Science Staff Kelly Taylor remarked, “This is a land of change in small ways and big ways. It has risen 1.8 feet in the last 100 years and is now on a faster pace to double that in the next 25. It has been moving westward and changing its landscape and flora for thousands of years, a dynamic that will continue as sea level rises in the 21st century. The salt marsh provides homes and birthplaces for birds and fish that might otherwise be extinct.Īssateague Island is a barrier island formed after the last ice age. They protect it from the harsh storms rolling off the ocean. Barrier islands are nature’s gift to the mainland. A beach forms and the wind piles up sand dunes, behind which is a meadow and a salt marsh facing a shallow bay that laps up on the mainland beyond. ![]() Sand we have aplenty for the ocean waves to scour and push about and drop when its energy wears out. Wind and water eroded these giants of sedimentary stone to the 3,000-feet foothills you see today. Four hundred eighty million years ago, colliding land masses pushed up the Appalachian Mountains, some say, as high as the Himalayas. It is recognized by the United Nations as an International Biosphere Reserve.Ī barrier island designation has three requirements: a long shallow sloping shore to the continental shelf, a stable sea level, and plenty of sand. Assateague, at 37 miles, is one of the longest undeveloped shorelines on the East Coast. There are 2,200 barrier islands along ocean fronts around the globe and the most, 405, are in the United States extending along the East Coast from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico. It has in the past.īarrier islands are narrow sand spits formed by wind and waves and, therefore, ever changing. ![]() Yet as sea levels rise and storms intensify, a different landscape than we see today may emerge. Crystals of sand, a collage of pebbles and shells, sandpipers racing the incoming water, and views to the horizon touch our soul and connect us to a world that has always been and will be forever more. The waves sing music to our ears…sometimes thundering, sometimes gentle. Just gazing across the immense span of water promotes a comfortable solitude that slows us down from the frantic life of urban living. Indeed, journey down to the seashore and experience personal change. “We live in a century of change, we must leave (for future generations) the world as God really made it…What the Good Lord gave in abundance have now become rare possessions…Clear water, warm sandy beaches are a nation’s real treasure,” he said. On September 21st, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the creation of a new National Park, Assateague Island National Seashore an island built on wind and wave along Maryland and Virginia’s East Coast. For he…raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves…They mount up to the heavens, they go down to the depths…he maketh the storm a calm…” “They that go down to the sea in ships…see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
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