Ecological and economic value of wetlands, oyster reefs & coastal forests

July 18, 2013 at 1:00pm Delaware Bay Oyster Replenishment Assistance, Inc. According to the latest research, Large expanses of coastal forests and wetlands,oyster and coral reefs, dunes and seagrass beds are critical for protecting the eastern seaboard of the United States. If it lost its shield of natural coastal defenses - mangroves, wetlands and oyster beds, that currently buffer about 67 percent of the nation's seashores from ocean forces like wind and waves, more than a million additional people and billions of dollars in property value will be vulnerable to damage, says a July 14, 2013 report published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Showing such impact are photographs of Port Mahon,Delaware. This was once a station for the US Coast Guard the home of processing plants with the fisheries industry. And home for local commercial fisherman who operated Crab boats, Oyster dredgers, fishing boats as well as small repair shops that provided services for boaters and watermen. The first photograph shows a facility that was used by the U.S. Military a training center you will notice the adjacent building was connected by a series of boardwalks and behind the largest building, beyond the main road, leading into Port Mahon is an automobile.This photograph was taken in the early 1930's The Second photograph was taken about 30 years later (circa 1968) . you will notice the adjacent building is no longer their. nor any signs of an automobile being able to reach the building what you do see though is the anchor pilings exposed more significantly.

In the third photograph you will see. what is left of the dock for one of the processing plants was located you will also see the only thing left standing of the building is the anchor pilings of the building in the first two photos. The building was set a fire which destroyed it. In the fourth photograph you see the main road into Port Mahon which is now all but eroded completely away that has very limited access to where these two buildings and the public boat ramp is located. This was caused by storm surge that will be discussed in more detail in several reports we published on our fan page. This shoreline damage is not isolated to just Port Mahon though. over the last 70 years this has occurred throughout the entire coastline of Delaware, extending up to the northern most parts of the Delaware River. In Woodland Beach you can see significant changes in the outline of the shore even as recent as Hurricane Sandy which now exposes portions of the boardwalk, as well as the old pier which was destroyed by storm surges. These storm surges combined with the lack of buffers to protect the shore have been the cause of our states shoreline drastically changing. The Intelligence community has recently began funding for geoengineering to find ways of solving this ever increasing problem to the U.S. coastline.

At Port Mahon there is a Fuel Depot that now sits just a couple hundred feet away from the Delaware Bay's fast eroding shoreline, It is not difficult to recognize a severe problem that is in the not so distant future if something is not done to correct this problem. Either a massive cost to relocate the Fuel depot will occur. or Engineers will be forced to come up with a better way of holding back the waves, as was attempted in the 1970's that has now shown signs of failure-with the barrier wall now all but destroyed by the incoming waves. One of the buffers that prevented such drastic changes to our shoreline was Oyster reefs that dotted our Bay's shorelines from Slaughters Beach, as far north as Augustine Beach and into the Delaware River near New Castle DE. These reefs were not only buffers from the storms, they were also found to be a lucrative business, that has all but been left for historians to record on about the Delaware Bay and River.

The article details a sensitive topic regarding the rapid pace of coastal development in the U.S. - providing the first national map outlining the risks of seashores that are depleted of their wavebreaking ecosystems. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, greater considertion for enhancing the resilience of New York City have included restoration of oyster and wetland habitats (Feuer, A. Protecting New York City, Before Next Time. New York Times (3 November 2012); available at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/nyregion/protecting-newyork-city-before-next-time.html ) One of the authors of "Coastal habitats shield people and property from sea-level rise and storms" Katie K. Arkema (The Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, 8907 25th Ave NE Seattle,Washington 98115, USA ) notes natural barriers are one of several strategies in defensive efforts that also include infrastructure and requirements to build farther back from the shore. "We're not trying to say in this paper habitats are the end-all," Arkema said. "What we're trying to say is that they do provide a lot of power in terms of reducing risk of people and property. If they were to be lost, that would require either massive investments and hard infrastructure and engineering approaches, or damages and loss of life." For more on the report published by EE News Nature Climate Change "Coastal habitats shield people and property from

sea-level rise and storms" http://www.eenews.net/assets/2013/07/15/document_cw_01.pdf Marsh grass and a thicket of large reeds have also been found to trap carbon dioxide during summer months, showing potential for reducing the greenhouse gas, according to Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute who announced recently, one of best filters of carbon dioxide found in New Jersey is an invasive reed called phragmites, whose long stems trap carbon dioxide better than grass. Phragmites australis was brouht to the U.S from Europe during the late 1800s ,used as a packing material aboard ships. (for more information on phragmites and what Delaware is doing with phragmites go to http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/fw/dplap/services/LIP/Pages/PhragmitesFacts.aspx). More recently though, researchers from the smithsonian Institue, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other are examining a third environmental hazard: an invasive species. The tall, feathery grass Phragmites australis Scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)in Edgewater, Maryland havebeen conducting, a series of unusual experiments aimed at simulating the effects of climate change and water pollution on a vital ecosystem. What were doing out here is studying plant processes to predict the conditions of wetlands like this oneand tidal wetlands everywherein about 100 years, Patrick Megonigal, a scientist at the center, says as he strides a boardwalk stretching into the 166-acre marsh

The study is to discover the affect of tidal wetlands, the only one of its kind in the world, that first begun in 1987, examining how multiple factors such as air and water pollutants will affect tidal wetlands, and how they become even more important as a buffer against the storms and sea-level rise that are predicted to come with climate change, That will impact between 1.7 million and 2.1 million people living in "high hazard" areas by 2100. Of those, up to 40,000 families are expected to be below the poverty line, and between $400 billion and $500 billion in residential property will be vulnerable to damage.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/How-Will-the-Wetlands-Respondto-Climate-Change-183820501.html According to Kate Orf, professor at Columbias Graduate School of Architecture in New York, one way of preventing beach erosion and property damages caused by storm surge is artificial oyster reefs that could theoretically help protect low-lying areas. Obviously, this strategy would not prevent major damage and beach erosion caused by massive surges of 11 foot waves coming in from cells such as Sandy, but they would reduce the impacts of waves on the shorelines of our coastal marshlands and some beach erosion, providing a buffer to our coastlines in Kent and New Castle counties.

One of the reasons why there are few oysters in areas like Woodland Beach, Augustine Beach and Bowers Beach is due to the silty bottom running all along our shoreline. The larvae are floating around, but they die because theres no place for them to attach to and grow. Below is an article published in the New York Times-- in 2010 where students have been working on building oyster reefs in NYC. This article holds a lot of valuable information that also relates to Delaware's Shoreline and our water clarity in the Delaware Bay. I would suggest that mapping and monitoring is more thoroughly done in Kent County as well as in New Castle County. One way of doing this is to provide a more equal funding to organizations like our friends at Delaware Estuary and Delaware Bay Oyster Replenishment Assistance that focus on our water clarity beyond the Inland Bay and the 23 stations that were listed in the NRDC report. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/dining/30harbor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The week of July 7-14 Kent and New Castle County Delaware was plummeted with flash floods, causing property damage and alarm to many residents in Dover,Newark, Middletown, and Milford,DE. Some of the images posted by Dover Post, the News Journal and Delaware State News showed a very critical impact everyone should be aware of, and law makes begin working harder on ways to correct the problems that occurred with the flooding. Pollutants like pesticide, and herbicide chemicals, oil, and other toxins collected in the flood water, then drained into rivers like the St. Jones River just blocks away from where the photo

above was taken ( on Queen Street Water Street Governors Ave) attached. Those toxins eventually went into the Delaware Bay and River causing further damage to an already delicate eco system . Other locations also have toxins that were released into the Delaware Estuary; in Kent County, New Castle County, and Sussex County, resulting in additional environmental damage, due to the massive amounts of pollution spilling into the Delaware Estuary from the floods. However, flooding is not the only time these toxins enter the streams and waterways that feed from the Delaware Bay. Travel to Port Mahon, and look at the outline of the shoreline today, comparing what you see, with the shoreline in the 1930's (See photographs attached). Then look at the timeline for storm surges blamed for shoreline erosion in that area. The reason for the change in the shores outline was not only a result of storm surges over the last 75 years, it is accredited to mass oyster dredging. Oyster reefs that once protected Port Mahon (and other shorelines in Kent County and New Castle County were not replenished with the shells--returned back to the reefs, causing an economical and ecological disaster to occur, ultimately not only destroying the environment and shoreline, destroying the Fisheries Industry in Delaware, that could preserving these vital buffers to our coast would have have pevented the mass amount of erosion to Delaware's coastline. To resolve these problems, Delaware's General Assembly members and our governor, Jack Markell, in combination with Delaware's Dept of Natural Resources should be concerned with revitalizing the economy within Kent County and New Castle County, also showing much concern for the delicate ecosystem of the Delaware Bay/River, our beaches wetlands and coastal forests, all contributing to having better water clarity throughout the Delaware Estuary, instead of focusing solely on building oyster reefs and aqua-culture in Sussex County and the Inland Bays . The fisheries industry in Delaware depends on the well being of the Delaware Bay/River also. Yet it is not given any credence of importance when HB 160 was passed, by excluding the Delaware Bay, once the most lucrative industry in DE-- and according to a U.S. Department of Commerce and N.O.A.A repoet was last in providing revenue from the fisheries industry that was accredited for geneating 2.4 trillion dollars in the Mid Atlantic Region, that Kent and New Castle County and Sussex County-- according to the report Delaware were last within the Fisheries Industry (Includes both recreational, subsistence and commercial fishing, and the harvesting, processing, and marketing sectors). impacting 399 businesses, nearly 1,500 percent lower than New Jersey's impact in the same industry . (Citation omitted but available upon request) "Delaware, 15,000 in employment impacts in Maryland, 44,000 in employment impacts in New Jersey, 42,000 in employment impacts in New York, and 22,000 in employment impacts in Virginia. New Jersey generated the largest impacts across the three other impact categories, generating $6.6 billion sales impacts, $1.5 billion in income, and $2.4 billion in value added impacts. The smallest income impacts

were generated in Delaware ($8.9 million) and the smallest employment impacts were also generated in Delaware (339 jobs)." (Pg 83 NOAA and U.S. Commerce Report ) When looking at what HB 160 states it is to accomplish. The Inland Bays in Sussex County do little, if any good at improving water clarity for the Delaware Bay/River. And will not provide aid to improve economic stability nor generate new businesses from this industry to come to Delaware-- along the Delaware Bay/River in Kent County, New Castle County and portions of Sussex County. HB160 lifts a ban on oyster and shellfish gardening in the Inland Bays HB 160 does not lift the ban on aqua-culture for shellfish (oyster gardening) in Kent County or New Castle County as well as a portion of the Delaware Bay within Sussex County. In order to establish more economic opportunities within Kent County and New Castle County State law makes from local officials to our General Assembly should consider the importance of revisiting HB 160, and include the 782 sq acres of water known as the Delaware River and Delaware Bay. Save the Economy by Saving the Delaware River and Delaware Bay Earl Lofland, Director Delaware Bay Oyster Replenishment Assistance, Inc