The US. Army Corps of Engineers and Maryland are building a new island in the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Journal's Jeremy Cox joined them to take a look at this historic land-making project.
RUSH: The US Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Maryland have been slowly constructing a new island in the Chesapeake Bay for 25 years. The new terrain comes from silt and sand, dredged up from navigation channels. But Poplar Island, as it is called, will run out of room soon. So in June, work began on another new island. Chesapeake Bay Journal's Jeremy Cox recently hopped aboard an Army Corps boat to check on the history-making project.
COX: Barely three months ago, there was nothing here but open water, up to 12 feet deep. Now, a brand new dot of land is emerging from the depths. One grain of sand at a time. Multi-ton construction vehicles roam hither and yawn across a lunar landscape. Work started in earnest in June. By the time I toured the site in August though, there was already between 12 and 15 acres of new land here. This we're creating from nothing, we're creating something so you can see it building every single day. That's Devin Carlock with Cottrell Contracting Corps. The US Army Corps of Engineers hired the company to dredge up sand from the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and unload it here. The result is a new island. Well, sort of a new island. Let's back up a bit. There used to be an island here lying at the mouth of the little Choptank River where it meets the Chesapeake Bay along its eastern shore. It was called James Island. It was kind of a big deal in the 1600s, more than a thousand acres of land. That's more than twice the size of New York's Central Park. About 20 families lived here in the late 1800s, but today, the original James Island is all but gone.
ENDERS: My name's Aidan. I am the marina operations manager here at Slaughter Creek Marina in Taylor's Island, Maryland.
COX: Aidan Enders may only be in his 20s, but it's been long enough to see a dramatic difference in James Island.
ENDERS: When I was a kid, there was a little bit left of it. I was probably like 10 or 12 years old. You could actually go up to it and walk on it. And then a couple years ago it was just the three islands. And then I went and we kind of just walked around onto one of the little patches out there for a little bit.
COX: Were there still trees on it?
ENDERS: No, trees were gone. Trees were gone by this point.
COX: Scientists blame erosion for the demise of James Island. It happened for hundreds of years. Then climate change came along, ushering in sea level rise and speeding up the process. And James Island wasn't alone. Katie Perkins is the Army Corps engineer overseeing the James Island reconstruction.
PERKINS: If you looked at how many islands there were in the Chesapeake Bay 150 years ago versus today, it's just... the number continues to decrease.
COX: Perkins says there's a bigger objective here than just providing a place where dredge spoil can be dumped.
PERKINS: These types of remote island projects also have a huge benefit for wildlife and specifically migratory birds. So there's a lot of support with the project with all of our resource partners to construct this additional habitat that's kind of been disappearing in the bay.
COX: So that's why insiders refer to this kind of dredge work as beneficial reuse. The main work should be completed by around 2058. By then, the island will spread across more than 2000 acres. That would make it the largest project of its kind on the East Coast, even bigger than Poplar Island about a dozen miles to the north. The work on James has only just begun, but the wildlife benefits are already here. Alex Baldowski, another Army Corps official, points this out to me as our boat circles the new island.
BALDOWSKI: Looks like there's a couple of pelicans roosting, having a good time.
COX: The first occupants of a new island, if all goes according to plan, they'll be the first of many. Jeremy Cox, Chesapeake Bay Journal.
