The Rising Tide -
Cause, Effects and Planning
for Rising Sea Level

Economic and Environmental Value from Wetlands

Environmental Impacts

The environmental services provided by wetlands are essential to the future of the Chesapeake Bay. Wetland losses at the level forecasted would negate any progress made to date toward restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and probably trigger an ecosystem collapse that would doom the Bay.

Wetlands are estimated to have the highest productivity of any ecosystem on Earth, exceeding the productivity and environmental services provided by tropical rainforests – by seven times. Wetlands are also one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. The value of the functions provided by wetlands – nutrient and pollution removal, water quality improvement, groundwater recharge, habitat, recreation, etc. – is estimated to be nearly $6,000 per acre per year.

Water quality is improved as wetlands remove excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) and trap sediments and decompose any toxins attached to them. Until saturated, wetlands can process up to 80% of the nitrogen and phosphorous entering them. Fecal contamination from animals and runoff from poorly constructed septic fields are trapped by wetlands and detoxified naturally. To replace these free water quality services would be very expensive.

Wetlands serve as essential fish habitat for the majority of fish in the Chesapeake Bay.  They are nurseries for juvenile fish, providing safety from many predators, as well as a rich food supply.

A major habitat concern in the mid-Atlantic region is the loss of migratory waterfowl habitat. The major mid-Atlantic wildlife refuges have extensive vegetated tidal wetlands and are thus all at low elevations and at risk from sea level rise. Back Bay, Fisherman’s Island, Blackwater, Chincoteague and Cape May National Wildlife Refuges all face serious loss of vegetated wetlands. Blackwater is the focus of a major marsh restoration effort (http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/blackwater.html ) while analysis of wetlands loss and inundation at the other refuges is just beginning.

Rising sea would make the Bay saltier, disrupting ecosystem balance and increasing the potential for disease among oysters. The shoreline would be threatened as communities and individual homes in low-lying zones became flooded, increasing sediment loading and threatening submerged aquatic vegetation and shellfish.

Economic Impacts

Wetlands provide fish and wildlife habitat for 75% of the commercial fishery and almost 90% of the recreational fishery. Two-thirds of the species that make up the commercial and recreational fishery (including crabs and fish) spend some stage of their life within tidal wetlands.   As noted above, they provide essential habitat for migratory birds as well. Recreation, hunting, and fishing are also dependent upon wetlands – generating many billions of dollars a year.

There will also be significant impacts on our beaches and dunes from sea level rise. Scientists estimate that a one-foot rise in sea level will produce a loss of at least 100 feet of beach in this region. So a two-foot rise in relative sea level will cause at least 200 feet of beach to be sucked into the ocean. As with wetlands, if there is development behind the beach, the beaches cannot migrate landward. Worse, as soon as a storm surge hits a bulkhead or sea wall, the remaining beach will become scoured out and also disappear.

This not only means the loss of environmental features that generate money (tourists coming to play on the 300 foot wide beach at Virginia Beach) it also means the loss of critical dune and beach habitat, not to mention the need for very expensive shoreline protection programs.

Flooding doesn’t have to happen every day to cause damage. Increased storm activity and higher sea levels have already caused occasional, storm-driven flooding that is affecting life in coastal communities. In 2006, Southeastern Virginia experienced three of the highest storm surges measured this century. Sea level rise has contributed to higher surges in recent years – remember the same storm in 1900 would have produced a one-foot lower storm surge. As sea level rises, storm surges will get higher and higher, relative to the past. And, some predict that warmer oceans will mean more storms reaching farther north, potentially causing the Chesapeake Bay to experience more inundation.

Major commercial insurance carriers are no longer offering coverage in coastal areas of Virginia. Allstate will no longer write new property insurance policies in the counties of Accomack,  Gloucester,   Isle of Wight,  King and Queen,  Lancaster, Matthews,  Middlesex,  Northumberland,   Northampton, Southampton,  Surrey,  Sussex, York counties or the cities of Chesapeake,  Franklin,  Hampton,   Newport News,  Norfolk,  Virginia Beach – localities with a combined population of 1.5 million people.

Nationwide will no longer insure new property within one mile of the coastline. In addition, State Farm has pulled out of coastal areas for new policies. Together the companies limiting new insurance coverage represent 55 % of the private insurance providers in the mid-Atlantic region. Remaining insurers in Virginia have announced a mandatory 5 % hurricane deductible, up from 2-3% previously.

There are a number of news reports on the impacts of these moves: See the Washington Post article, “A Dream Blown Away”  or the Baltimore Sun Article, “Insurers Shrink from the Coast”

In Hampton Roads and elsewhere in Tidewater Virginia, the impacts of these storms are being felt today. Homes are already being raised off of their foundations and out of the flood zone – at great taxpayer expense – the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) pays 75% of the cost of this work, up to $40,000 a home.

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