Efforts are now underway to keep Tangier Island from disappearing into the Chesapeake Bay. In our weekly series with the Bay Journal Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush talks with reporter Lauren Hines-Acosta about shoring up the island's defenses.
Tangier Island, a Chesapeake Bay island community of roughly 200 to 400 residents in Accomack County, Virginia, is under threat from sea level rise, shoreline erosion and sinking land. Local and regional partners are working to develop a handful of strategies to protect one of the Bay's most vulnerable communities before time runs out.
The urgency extends beyond preserving land. For residents, it also means protecting homes, cemeteries and the community that has defined island life for generations.
"Tangier Island is a unique place," said Bay Journal reporter Lauren Hines-Acosta. "The community's trying to figure out what can we save? Some of that is really personal basic stuff like grandma's house, but that could also mean the cemeteries that are on the land and other essential things."
A 2021 study estimated Tangier's population could reach zero by 2053 as sea level rise, shoreline erosion and land subsidence continue to threaten the island.
To help address those challenges, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has secured funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to develop a comprehensive resiliency plan. The effort is intended to identify the island's most vulnerable areas and position the project to compete for larger federal grants needed for implementation.
Potential solutions include expanding living shorelines, restoring wetlands and marshes, and constructing oyster reefs to reduce wave energy (which would also benefit the local watermen.) Other proposals include more makeshift tactics; elevating critical infrastructure as water rises and adding seawalls.
"I think it's going to take a lot of different approaches because there's a lot of different factors at play here," Hines-Acosta said. "It's not just coastal erosion, but it's also sea level rise and then the land sinking."
For Tangier Island and its residents, it is a race against time to preserve both the island and the history found on it.
