People Behind a Stronger Coast: Kevin Holcomb and Amy Ferguson

As the supervisory biologist at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Kevin Holcomb is responsible for implementing management strategies to counter the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise. Seeing the positive outcomes that these practices have on both the wildlife and the opportunities it provides for public engagement fulfills the Service’s mission and rewards Holcomb. Credit: Steve Droter

After getting a degree in geography, Amy Ferguson served in the military for five years before attending graduate school at the University of Virginia. The partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Virginia Marine Resources Commission and USFWS allowed Ferguson to research and explore different management practices like building oyster reefs to create a more resilient coastline. “If you can enable natural processes to take care of themselves, that’s always ideal over hardened structures,” says Ferguson.

What makes a “living shoreline” come alive is not just the live oysters that create the foundation, but the ecosystem that it can support. The oysters provide food and habitat for shorebirds and aquatic species. Since the reef is organic, it is able to move and adapt to the predicted changes of climate change and sea-level rise. Credit: Steve Droter

These cement “castles” are acting as a substrate for oysters to cling onto and form reefs. As the oysters grow and begin to build up, a natural reef will occur creating a “living shoreline.” Holcomb, pictured here with Amy Ferguson, a University of Virginia graduate student, explains that as waves from storm events go over the reef they will attenuate, or become less intense – saving the coastal salt marshes from damage. Credit: Steve Droter

Chincoteague NWR is one of the most visited refuges in the country with more than 1.2 million visitors each year. “Most of them go to the beach and tour the refuge,” says Holcomb. “The sites were selected to provide visitors the opportunity to view the oyster castles up close and watch them evolve into living reefs. When visitors and volunteers can get close, help build, and understand this shoreline management technique, they are more likely to create similar shorelines on their personal properties as well.” Credit: Steve Droter

An osprey, also known as a “fish hawk,” perches above a snowy egret along Beach Access Road, directly across from Tom’s Cove visitor center. This bird of prey poses no threat to federally threatened and protected least tern and piping plover. The refuge provides excellent feeding and loafing areas for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds. Credit: Steve Droter

Chincoteague NWR has over 17 miles of beach along the Virginia side of Assateague Island. The barrier island spans both Virginia and Maryland and is owned and managed by multiple government agencies, including USFWS, NPS, and the State of Maryland. The diverse habitats are protected from development but provide recreational opportunities that attract visitors from all over the world. Credit: Steve Droter

Great blue herons that land in the refuge while traveling along the Atlantic Flyway are a popular attraction for visitors. Chincoteague’s extensive roadside drainage provides excellent coastal marsh habitat for wildlife, and highly accessible wildlife viewing opportunities. Credit: Steve Droter

“You don’t see crowded boardwalks or high-rise hotels. It’s a wonderful beach experience,” says Holcomb. “It’s a very remote and natural feel. You can walk for miles and not see another person at some times of the year. It’s nice to get that solitude sometimes.” Credit: Steve Droter

A popular attraction that has brought recognition to both the refuge and town are the Chincoteague ponies. It’s easy for visitors to view the ponies and an array of wildlife at the refuge. The 150 ponies located on the Virginia side of Assateague Island are actually managed by the local Volunteer Fire Company and graze through the refuge because of a special use permit. Credit: Steve Droter

“It’s been great to see the different organizations cooperating, the government, the nonprofit, and the academic institutions all coming together to work on a similar project with a great goal in mind,” says Ferguson. “[I also] love the waders and the mud.” Credit: Steve Droter

More frequent storms surges have continued to sculpt habitat and public access along the Virginia coastline. At Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge — one of the country’s most visited refuges — supervisory biologist Kevin Holcomb is using oysters to face the challenges of sea-level rise and climate change.

This past spring, Holcomb and partners installed a living shoreline totaling over 3,650 linear feet of oyster reef at the refuge. The oyster reef protects the refuge’s shoreline and access roads by slowing down the speed and intensity of incoming waves. Amy Ferguson, a graduate student from the University of Virginia, is measuring this slowing down process — called attenuation — as part of a partnership with The Nature Conservancy.

“Anything that can help nature help itself — like artificial oyster reefs or marsh enhancements — I think is a great thing to consider when looking at shoreline protection methods,” says Ferguson.

What makes a shoreline come alive? Coasts are often protected by grey, hardened infrastructure such as bulkheads and sea walls that don’t provide habitat for estuarine wildlife and can lead to even more damage to the ecosystem over time. In contrast, a living shoreline such as an oyster reef creates habitat and buffers wave energy — instead of the wave hitting a wall at full force, its energy is dampened by the breakwater reef.

Overseeing the refuge’s oyster restoration project is The Nature Conservancy’s Virginia Coast Reserve and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. This past spring, volunteers, community members and partners gathered to move 13,800 cement “oyster castle” blocks to help lay the foundations at Tom’s Cove and Assateague Bay.

The oyster castle blocks act as substrate for oyster spat to cling on to. The blocks are stacked so that as oyster colonies grow, they increase in size until a reef forms. It takes around three years for the reef to form, but Holcomb says that the benefits can last decades — benefits such as filtration of nutrients and water, food for shorebirds and biodiversity.

These oyster reefs will enhance Chincoteauge’s rich coastal environment and natural treasures. And the refuge’s popularity with visitors — whether for wildlife observation, nature photography, hunting or fishing — is also a valuable asset for the local community. A 2006 economic study by the USFWS estimates that tourism from the refuge contributes $315 million in annual spending and 3,766 jobs.

“Chincoteague has a wonderful array of wildlife for easy observation by the public,” says Holcomb. “Our visitors come to see the birds, beach and the Chincoteague ponies which make the refuge and the town famous.”

When Hurricane Sandy made landfall four years ago in October 2012, most of the damage to the refuge was downed trees and road washouts, which threatened tourism areas. To prepare for the next big storm event, refuge managers and biologists like Holcomb wanted to use natural methods like a living shoreline. Chincoteague NWR received more than $500,000 in federal funding from the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Act to work with their partners to enhance, restore, and build a more resilient natural defense system to make their community #StrongerAfterSandy.

This is the third in a five part series of photo slideshows highlighting the people who have been working to defend their coastal ecosystems against storms in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. In previous weeks we have looked at Matt Whitbeck and Miles Simmons, combating climate change in the Chesapeake Bay and Julie Devers, assessing fish barriers and culverts in Maryland.  You can view the continuation of this series and other news regarding our restoration and recovery projects on our website.

 

 

People Behind a Stronger Coast: Julie Devers

These three corrugated metal culverts outside of Centreville, MD, at a road-stream crossing are a severe barrier to fish migration, says Julie Devers, fish biologist. Water flows through the crushed and rusted pipes to drop into a shallow pool at the outlet. If fish were trying to swim upstream to their spawning grounds, they would be forced to jump, an impossible task for migrating fish species found in this watershed. Credit: Steve Droter

Communities are safer if culverts are correctly designed and installed. During storms and flash flooding events, such as Hurricanes Irene or Sandy, Devers says “the water flow [was] so high that it was going up and over the culverts and was wiping out the roads… So we’re trying to set states up to have the data [they need] so in the event we are replacing culverts for routine maintenance or if there’s a fish barrier, we’re putting the right size in.” Credit: Steve Droter

The North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC) is a network of individuals from universities, conservation organizations, state and federal natural resource and transportation agencies focused on improving aquatic connectivity in 13 states from Maine to West Virginia. The funding they received after Hurricane Sandy from the Department of the Interior created common protocols for measuring road stream–crossings to identify high priority bridges and culverts for upgrades and replacement to improve coastal resiliency and fish passages. Credit: Steve Droter

“Even if they are not what we have historically considered migratory species, all fish need to be able to move freely within a given stream,” says Phil Herzig, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The goal” explains Devers “is to maintain connectivity for species like brook trout so that we don’t cut a population off so that it doesn’t have genetic mixing with other downstream populations.” Credit: Stever Droter

Out of the more than 30,000 road-stream crossings in Maryland, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and partners have assessed approximately 1,000. With an average of one road-stream crossing every 1.3 miles in the Northeast, the ability to prioritize which crossings are the most severe inhibitors to safety and fish passage allows for the best distribution of resources. Credit: Steve Droter

At the base of this road-stream crossing is a scour pool. When culverts are undersized for high flow events, water comes through like a firehouse. This can widen and/or deepen the downstream area as it cuts through the banks. These scour pools destabilize stream banks and lead to an increase of sediment sloughed off into the stream. Credit: Steve Droter

“There’s a brook trout stream near my house,” says Devers, “A culvert in the stream has been replaced twice and the road repaired because of flooding and if they would just put it back the right size, there could be an opportunity for brook trout passage. I wish the public knew that some of these resources that they care about could be helped if we got the engineers to make the culverts the right size” to handle these high flow events. Credit: Steve Droter

Just outside of Centreville, Maryland, you can find Julie Devers waist deep in water on the side of the road. With measuring tape in hand, she is assessing one of more than 30,000 road-stream crossings in the state.  The particular culverts she is examining are known to be a severe barrier to fish passage. Safety for people and connectivity for fish and wildlife can be enhanced by simply repairing and redesigning these crossings.

Devers is a fish biologist with the Maryland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. By partnering with the Maryland State Highway Administration, NOAA Fisheries and Maryland Department of Natural Resources, they have been assessing road-stream crossings to develop recommendations of which culverts and crossings should be prioritized for repair. “Highways have a maintenance schedule,” says Devers, and through their recommendations, “the SHA could replace [the culverts] when they redo the highway.”

Entire roads can be wiped out if they are undersized or poorly designed.  “What we saw in the Northeast during Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee is that undersized culverts really caused a lot of damage,” says Devers. Flooding from storm surges are not able to pass through these barriers and can cause thousands of dollars of damage to roads and property. As we mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation of the Atlantic Coast, it is important to keep in mind the impact that these climate events can have on our communities.

For species of river herrings like alewife, blueback herring and American shad the difference between a fish-friendly passageway and a severe barrier is more than a safety concern; it’s about life or death. These species are vital to the food web. Alewife have been known to be eaten by nearly anything throughout their transition in habitat; ranging from cod, halibut, fox, and eagles.

These migratory species travel from saltwater to freshwater to lay their eggs. If there are blockages along the way, they won’t be able to complete their journey. Even for nonmigratory species, such as brook trout, the inability to travel upstream could leave entire populations separated causing a genetic bottleneck. The brook trout stream near her home, one of the last in Anne Arundel County, says Devers, is considered a “relic” to the locals.

Across the whole Northeast, there are an estimated 210,000 bridges, culverts, and dams spanning 280,000 miles of river. Many of them, you are passing on your morning commute and are throughout your community. While many of these dams and bridges serve important purposes, old and inadequate designs make them a risk.

After Hurricane Sandy, funding through the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 has supported dozens of projects to restore rivers and streams and remove barriers to connectivity. With this funding, projects throughout Maryland have been able to better protect their communities and coastline through increases resiliency. Groups like the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative were able to utilize this funding to create a map and database for biologists like Devers and for the public to use. These tools provide information about the assessed barriers in a region and rates how bad they are for fish passage or safety.

Through the work of biologists like Devers, we are able to make our communities more resilient. By working to identify the features in our communities that could pose a risk to people and wildlife, she is giving stakeholders the tools to create the change needed to make us #StrongerAfterSandy.

This is the second in a five part series of photo slideshows highlighting the people who have been working to defend their coastal ecosystems against storms in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Last week, we looked at Matt Whitbeck and Miles Simmons in Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. You can view the continuation of this series and other news regarding our restoration and recovery projects on our website.

People Behind a Stronger Coast: Matt Whitbeck and Miles Simmons

“Going beyond the biological diversity argument, these salt marshes are the foundation of the food web that supports recreational fisheries, commercial fisheries, water purification, flood protection,” says Matt Whitbeck. “These coastal marshes provide some really critical ecosystem services to the human community.” Credit: Steve Droter

Miles Simmons walks through the seaside goldenrod at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. “We’re losing the habitat. There are a lot of marsh species that depend on these ecosystems for their habitat– their entire life cycles are spent in the marsh. Some of them are migratory birds just moving through. But if we lose those habitats we might lose those species as well.” Credit: Steve Droter

“There is a lot of day-to-day management actions. But as the land subsides and sea levels rise, some marshes are going to be able to keep pace but many are likely to succumb. They’re going to slowly drown, they’re going to fragment, they’re going to break apart and convert to open water.” Credit: Steve Droter

“Protecting the wetlands from any future development and restoring them has benefited the local area against storm surge,” says Simmons. The value of Blackwater NWR doesn’t stop there. “Tourism is huge around here. Blackwater NWR brings in a lot of people visiting the refuge for photography, wildlife observation, fishing and hunting. People come from all along the East Coast just to see Blackwater.” Credit: Steve Droter

One of the charismatic species easily seen at Blackwater NWR is the bald eagle. Over 200 individuals were counted in January and Blackwater NWR provides some of the best habitat for them. Their largest public event is the annual Eagle Fest which is held in March, attracting thousands of people that come from all over the mid-Atlantic area. Credit: Steve Droter

“We spent a lot of time thinking about what management actions we can employ that will increase the resiliency of the salt-marsh community to sea-level rise, to storm impacts and how can we do that in a way that really maximizes the benefit to the wildlife that depend on it,” says Whitbeck. Credit: Steve Droter

Blackwater NWR is currently attempting thin-layering sediment restoration. “We’re trying to build up the elevation of the marsh with local dredge material coming out of the river channel. If it’s possible to sustain the marsh for another 50 to 100 years — that will have management implications for us into the future,” says Simmons, pictured with Whitbeck. Credit: Steve Droter

By conducting vegetation surveys in meter plots, Blackwater NWR is able to track the vegetation community and determine the dominant species and grass cover in response to shoreline elevation. Common vegetation includes Spartina alterniflora (saltmarsh cordgrass), Spartina patens (salt marsh hay), and Distichlis spicata (seashore saltgrass).” Credit: Steve Droter

“My favorite wetland plant would be seaside goldenrod. You see it everywhere,” says Simmons. “It’s color in a sea of green. These flecks of yellow add to the landscape and helps create that picturesque scene that we’re so grateful to have.”

Since the refuge’s establishment in 1933, over 5,000 acres of marshland have been lost due to sea-level rise — and this trend is continuing. “A lot of people when they talk about the threats of sea-level rise, it’s very hypothetical and in the future. But it’s very real here. That’s one of the important stories I think Blackwater can tell. I think Blackwater really serves to communicate what the impacts of sea-level rise and subsidence are,” says Whitbeck. Credit: Steve Droter

Matt Whitbeck and Miles Simmons are on the front lines of dealing with climate change. Where they work along the coastline of the Chesapeake Bay, scientists say sea levels are rising at rates three to four times faster than the global average. The cause is a combination of rising waters due to global climate change and sinking land, also known as subsidence.

As the supervisory wildlife biologist at the Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Whitbeck oversees the diverse habitats of Blackwater, Glenn L. Martin, Eastern Neck and Susquehanna National Wildlife Refuges.

While many may see the impacts of climate change as a looming event in the future, Whitbeck disagrees, saying, “It’s very real here.” Sea-level rise has continually shaped the landscape, turning marshes into lakes and forests into marsh grass. At the predicted rate of sea-level rise, nearly all of Blackwater’s marshes could be permanently inundated by 2100.

That could be disastrous for the refuge’s habitats, plant and animal species. Many of the species found here are uniquely adapted to survive in the refuge’s forests, marshes and shallow water habitats. “All the major taxonomic groups have a species or two that has found a way to exist in a saline environment,” says Whitbeck, such as the salt marsh skipper and the Diamondback terrapin.

“In the spirit of maintaining biological diversity, it is important to conserve salt marshes. So strictly from a conservation biology standpoint, a fish and wildlife conservation standpoint – maintaining all the parts is really the first order of business. Ensuring all these species have all the habitat they need to exist is critical,” says Whitbeck.

Yet the community benefits are equally important, especially as the threats of climate change become more evident. Salt marshes provide huge benefits as nurseries for fish, sponges for soaking up flood waters and reducing coastal erosion, and buffers from storm surge and strong waves.

Miles Simmons, a biological technician at the refuge, grew up on the Eastern Shore and has experienced the effects that storms can have on the environment, but also what kinds of effects a healthy marsh can have.

“Marshes – wetlands in particular – are critical in mitigating the effects of large storms,” he says.

When Hurricane Sandy struck the Atlantic coast in 2012, there was a lot of infrastructure that was damaged, but it could’ve been worse – specifically for the communities around Smith Island, located just south of Blackwater.

Having the healthy intact marsh systems of the Glenn L. Martin NWR along the northern part of Smith Island helped to stop shoreline erosion that was taking place on the western and northwestern shorelines. This “really helps maintain that buffer and give the community a small measure of protection,” says Whitbeck.

In June 2016, Whitbeck and team completed construction on a 21,000-foot living shoreline at Martin NWR that will dynamically benefit the surrounding local area and the environment into the future.

Following Hurricane Sandy, efforts to repair and build resiliency around these coastal communities were aided with the help of federal funding from the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013. Refuges and communities all throughout Maryland received over $13,096,841 to put towards recovery and resiliency.

At Blackwater, as the shoreline elevation begins to shift, biological technicians like Simmons are conducting vegetation surveys to monitor the changing landscape. This is some of the first opportunities that Blackwater has had to examine the ecological changes that result from elevated water levels.

By continuing to work on the Chesapeake Bay coastline, Matt Whitbeck and Miles Simmons are not only ensuring that Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is #StrongAfterSandy, but continue to make it resilient in the face of climate change.

This is the first in a five part series of photo slideshows highlighting the people who have been working to  defend their coastal ecosystems against storms as we approach the four year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. You can view the continuation of this series and other news regarding our restoration and recovery projects on our website.