{"id":80757,"date":"2019-09-12T23:59:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T06:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=80757"},"modified":"2020-07-06T14:09:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T21:09:46","slug":"chesapeake-bays-vanishing-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/chesapeake-bays-vanishing-island","title":{"rendered":"Chesapeake Bay’s Vanishing Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

A version of this story appeared in the fall 2019 issue of\u00a0Uncommon Path<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Tangier Island, Virginia, sits in a 30-mile breadth of the Chesapeake Bay, a dozen miles from Crisfield, Maryland, its nearest mainland port. The isle\u2019s residents\u2014some 475 at most\u2014are mainly crabbers, or families of crabbers, who speak a distinct patois virtually untouched by outside influence since the island was inhabited nearly 250 years ago. Tangier has 3 miles of road not wide enough for a car and a fleet of golf carts and bikes to get around. It sits on the National Register of Historic Places. And it\u2019s disappearing. Tangier was always disappearing.<\/p>\n

Just like Spry\u2019s Island, Holland, Sharps and Great Cove, other largely forgotten Chesapeake islands. Just like the hundreds of bay islands that have vanished in decades and centuries past. Amid the slow, dispassionate grind of erosion, Tangier would\u2019ve realistically gone within 100 years, maybe 200. But now, in a diabolical marriage of climate-accelerated sea-level rise and the existing erosion, Tangier is dissolving exponentially faster.<\/p>\n

Water doesn\u2019t just eat at Tangier\u2019s shoreline; it bleeds up through the land. At an elevation of 3 to 4 feet, high ground is transforming to marsh, marsh to mudflat, and mudflat to open water. According to 2013 research from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tangier had just 25 habitable years left in it in a worst-case scenario. Six years later, and that worst case is a reality. Dave Schulte, a marine biologist who coauthored the research, says the island will now likely need to be abandoned within two decades.<\/p>\n

Tangier won\u2019t be the only island to go, but it will be one of the first in this country to disappear due to climate change. Smith Island, Maryland, a smaller tourism colony 6 miles to the north, will likely follow. \u201cIf we want to have any islands,\u201d Schulte warns of the remaining Chesapeake Bay and beyond, \u201cthen we need to start to save them, and make decisions about which ones to save.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A version of this story appeared in the fall 2019 issue of\u00a0Uncommon Path.\u00a0 Tangier Island, Virginia, sits in a 30-mile breadth of the Chesapeake Bay, a dozen miles from Crisfield, Maryland, its nearest mainland port. The isle\u2019s residents\u2014some 475 at most\u2014are mainly crabbers, or families of crabbers, who speak a distinct patois virtually untouched by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":151918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[795,1935,727,1988,1542,1934,2024,296],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-80757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-climate-change","tag-issue-1","tag-latest-posts","tag-our-changing-earth","tag-south","tag-uncommon-path","tag-uncommon-path-issues","tag-virginia"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/news\/chesapeake-bays-vanishing-island","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Chesapeake Bay’s Vanishing Island","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/chesapeake-bays-vanishing-island","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/chesapeake-bays-vanishing-island"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/09\/Hero_Our-Changing-Earth.gif?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/09\/Hero_Our-Changing-Earth.gif?fit=2000%2C1200"},"articleSection":"News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jessica Bernhard"}],"creator":["Jessica Bernhard"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["climate change","issue 1","latest posts","our changing earth","south","uncommon path","uncommon path issues","virginia"],"dateCreated":"2019-09-13T06:59:24Z","datePublished":"2019-09-13T06:59:24Z","dateModified":"2020-07-06T21:09:46Z"},"rendered":"