Maryland

Marshes on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Photo Credit: Kelly Leo (TNC)

Overview

With over 7,700 miles of shoreline, Maryland is one of the most vulnerable states to the effects of coastal flooding and erosion. Maryland’s Eastern Shore is the third most vulnerable region in the country after the Mississippi Delta and South Florida due to a combination of high rates of localized sea level rise and high rates of regional land subsidence – a natural geologic phenomena. Over the last century, Maryland has already witnessed over a foot of sea level rise, the impacts of which can be seen regularly on the ground in the form of increasingly frequent and dramatic nuisance flooding of roads and coastal properties, marsh loss, saltwater intrusion onto the edges of coastal agricultural fields, and through illustrative ghost forests – coastal forests dying in place as salt waters take over.

Socioeconomic

As sea levels rise, agricultural fields are being inundated with salt water on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Photo Credit: Severn Smith (TNC)

Marshes trap nutrients before they get into Chesapeake Bay, improving local water quality and providing critical nursery habitat for commercially and recreationally important fish and seafood species. Unless we act now to protect against dramatic marsh loss, Maryland’s seafood industry will once again be at risk.

Farmers across the Eastern Shore are already experiencing the impacts of saltwater intrusion on lower-lying edges of their agricultural fields. While the dynamics of saltwater intrusion are complex, its projected area of impact is only expected to increase, constraining arable lands and making it harder for farmers to make ends meet.

Climate change does not impact everyone equally. Some areas are more vulnerable than others, and some communities have resources in place that naturally make them more resilient in the face of frequent flooding and erosion. According to Maryland’s Coastal Resiliency Assessment, some of the most at-risk areas can be found in Dorchester, Somerset, and Worcester Counties. The Conservancy is beginning to work with these communities to identify ways that nature can help them become – naturally – more resilient.

Habitats and Species

Ghost Forest at TNC’s Robinson Neck Preserve, MD. Photo Credit: Kelly Leo

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources estimates that we could lose as much as 90% of our coastal marshes by 2100 to a combination of over three feet of projected sea level rise and localized land subsidence. In some of the more vulnerable places, like Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge located on the lower Eastern Shore in Dorchester County, we have already seen dramatic marsh loss in the last century of up to 5,000 acres. Thankfully, scientists and managers are also noting that nearly 3,000 acres of marshes have emerged at upland edges. But managing for wetland migration may come at a cost – as we lose ground, we need to make touch choices about how to use the lands that remain: do we manage upland areas for coastal forests, which are some of the most effective habitats for reducing flood impacts and risks to communities are losing ground to marshes? Or do we allow marshes to take them over, as visualized by the dramatic ghost forests seen along much of the Eastern Shore.

Marshes are important nursery habitats for fin and shellfish, but also provide critical nesting habitat for a variety of shorebirds. 90% marsh loss would have crippling and cascading impacts throughout our coastal ecosystems.

Ghost Forest at Assateauge Island National Seashore. Photo Credit: Kelly Leo