The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Study: Property owners may hamper marsh efforts
GROTON » In order to protect inland properties from sea level rise, those that live on the coast might have to be willing to cooperate with mitigation strategies, but a recent study from the University of Connecticut and Virginia Tech shows many coastal property owners may not want to.
According to the news release from Connecticut Sea Grant, there are an estimated 30,000 landowners in areas that are projected to be a tidal marsh by the year 2100. Surveyors found that a large portion of landowners in that zone would not be willing to sell property to conservation groups and efforts.
Researchers say their survey data shows it will not be enough to rely solely on education about sea level rise to ensure coastal property owners will take the necessary steps to protect coastal marshes.
“Coastal flooding is increasing in many places along the U.S. East Coast, with repercussions not only for the people who live there, but for the natural resources that many people value,” said Chris Elphick, a professor in the department of ecology & evolutionary biology at UConn and one of the researchers on the study. “Several species of birds that live in coastal marshes, for example, have declined dramatically in recent years and extinctions are likely if we don’t find ways to protect their habitat.”
In particular, the study explored coastal marshes and property owners’ willingness to allow those areas to expand further inland, as marshes have been known to help ease the burden of major storm events and rising seas.
In short, many property owners feel that they might not be able to get a fair price for land they continue to leave open to allow marshes to migrate inland, a press release about the study said.
“As both coastal communities and tidal marshes deal with increased flooding, the responses of landowners will likely constrain marsh migration across large swaths of coastline,” said Christopher Field, also of UConn and one of the researchers on the project.
Field added that the realization that many property owners may not be amenable to allowing migration of coastal marshes, “hints at big challenges ahead for a variety of coastal ecosystems that may not have many places left to go to escape accelerating sea level rise.”
The surveys were conducted in 2015 and were funded by the Connecticut Sea Grant, UConn, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation.