stretches of green tidal marshes from

the meadowlands to delaware bay serve as

natural flood barriers for coastal towns

and help boost water quality in popular

tourist destinations but a new rutgers

study finds new jersey's tidal marshes

are disappearing due to sea level rise

raven santana reports on how the marshes

might be saved as part of our ongoing

series on the human stories of climate

change peril and promise there'll be

more and more water and less and less

land fewer and fewer wetlands matia

yespin is a research scientist with the

new jersey department of environmental

protection she invited us to the

lighthouse center located on 194 acres

adjacent to the barnegat bay in waretown

where she monitors tidal wetlands that

research suggests that the shorelines

are eroding quite rapidly so we're

losing marsh due to erosion at the

shoreline the creeks which feed water

into the marsh and provide sediment and

nutrients to the marsh

are expanding over time so we're losing

marsh that way yes been says the tidal

marshes grassy meadows where salt water

meets the land are ground zero for sea

level rise and they're in danger of

disappearing completely by the next

century losing the marshes could mean

future disaster in addition to buffering

coastal communities from storms tidal

wetlands are considered to be and

wetlands in general are considered

considered to be the kidneys of the

natural world so they filter water they

give us clean water they take the

nutrients and pollution out of the water

and incorporate it into you know

back into their structure so it makes

our waters fishable and swimmable

many of the important commercial fish

species that people inland like to eat

have some life stage that's dependent on

salt marshes her research was part of a

study led by rutgers researchers

including judith weiss the lead author

of the report which examines a crisis

and proposes solutions to mitigate the

losses of tidal marshes they're living

right at the edge of the water

and as sea level rises

they have

really two options

they can either increase their elevation

so they stay ahead of sea level rise

or they can move inland

but moving inland

is not possible if there's

towns and houses and roads right behind

them martha maxwell doyle is the project

coordinator for the barnegat bay

partnership a national estuary program

which helps restore protect and enhance

water quality and natural resources to

the barnegat bay and its watershed it

used to be it would flood maybe you know

once or twice a year and now it's at

least twice a month if not more under

normal circumstances marshes can keep

pace with sea level rise if they get

enough sediment but at an accelerated

rate which maxwell doyle says we're in

right now they can't which is why

they're drowning and causing flooding

like this you know as far as our

wetlands go a number of them will be

under water by 2050. it's a number of

examples worldwide where

communities have taken action

in some cases moved some other things

back

off from the shore and kind of gone

inland a little bit beyond moving homes

and land the report authors recommend

adding new sediment on top of marshes to

elevate them they also suggest creating

living shorelines out of oysters or even

concrete to protect marshes from further

erosion for nj spotlight news i'm raven

santana

lead funding for peril and promise is

provided by dr p roy vagalos and diana t

vagalos

major support is provided by the mark

haas foundation and sue and edgar

wachenheim iii and the cheryl and philip

milstein family

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