This coast is our coast
Oak Grove Beach on Niantic Bay has a certain cluster of rocks that drowns twice a day, emerging a few hours later with sandy shoulders. The clump used to sport a low-tide skirt of snails, mussels, barnacles and seaweed. Now it is more of a mermaid, never quite standing up on dry land.
That is the landmark I measure by. You may have your own. You see the shrinkage of beach, the mass of empty shells, the sandier bottoms, the shortened gap between the top of high tide and the bottom of the dock.
This is sea level rise. We are the lucky ones, the coastal dwellers of Connecticut, who have always had the shore as our turf and surf. We are also the witnesses to change already visible wherever salt water meets land. Fortunately, we can recognize what’s happening and adjust, so that the changing shore can still sustain its inhabitants — marine, marsh, birdlife and humans.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the governmental agency we will all be hearing more from as climate change progresses, the 50 states have 95,471 miles of shoreline. The measurements date from 1930 to 1940, with 1970 figures for the Great Lakes. That includes “shorelines of outer coast, offshore islands, sounds, bays, rivers, and creeks as far as the head of the tidewater or to a point where tidal waters narrow to a width of ... 100 feet.”
Connecticut has 618 miles of that shoreline, the NOAA says. Knowing the state fronts Long Island Sound for about 100 miles, that may seem long, but the coastline does not run straight across. It includes the tidal portions of the Connecticut, Thames, Niantic and all other rivers and streams with a tidal flow at the mouth.
For several years I have been writing about salt marshes, railroad tracks and train service, the waterfronts of downtown New London and the Coast Guard Academy, Connecticut’s National Estuarine Research Reserve and other places for which sea-level rise changes the equation for anything planned near Long Island Sound.
Tiny, heavily developed Connecticut will likely experience a greater impact per capita than some coastal states, although we have an asset most do not: Long Island Sound. It is our buffer, our weather regulator, and a nursery for wildlife that we have the opportunity and responsibility to save.
The Day is recognizing such significance with a journalism lab and series that could not be more important for coastal life in Connecticut from now on. Because already demonstrable sea-level rise will increasingly affect the jobs, homes and travel of young people already growing up, every decision made now needs to factor in the effect to come.
A wise way to approach such decisions is to base them as widely as possible. Every town needs — and many already have — bodies whose mission is resiliency, sustainability and preservation. There will be a lot to preserve, starting with the salt marshes and the Sound, but
also with waterfront assets that must be adapted or moved.
Of course, adults who have the vision and the resources to get started on behalf of future generations must take the lead. But I would argue that children as young as middle school need a role. They are already worried and eager to do their part. By high school age they should be included in all the committees and task forces.
Getting something done about a problem is a relief. It can change fear into determination, and it replaces the crippling sense that there is nothing a person can do.
Recently, the Connecticut Audubon Society funded conservation education projects in cooperation with a number of middle schools around the state. Students had the task of learning about and tackling an environmental problem that they themselves observed.
At East Lyme Middle School, students chose to work on plastic litter.
When they returned to a site they had already cleaned up, they found more litter, including plastic water bottles, in heavy use since COVID closed the drinking fountains.
The students chose to use the grant funds for installation of a water bottle filling station. And I bet they will use it, after being the prime movers for a solution to a problem they dealt with hands-on.
When people — of any age — know, they can act, a whole community can take on a task impossible for a few.
As the longtime source of information about and in eastern Connecticut, The Day is taking the lead with its new project. Powerful journalism about both sea-level change and local efforts to address its effects will mean no one has to worry about this issue alone. To join in the effort to inform and act, consider contributing to The Day’s project at https://givebutter.com/ theday.
This coast is our coast.