better than doing nothing, Perhaps we can insure extra days
or weeks or years or decades on this beautiful Island for our
children and their children. As a group we are making every
effort to do just that.
The Kiawah Conservancy - Sea-level Rise – from M. Lee
Bundrick, Land Preservation Coordinator
The Conservancy is embracing the community’s proactive
approach to addressing sea-level rise. Special focus is on the
threats to the Island’s habitats that result from rising sea
levels. As changes to environmental conditions caused by
sea-level rise continue to occur, the Island’s natural habitats
are threatened.
Concerns include
changes over time
to our
groundwater,
including its depth
below the surface and salinity. Variations in sea level will
ultimately impact the survival of currently existing plant
communities and result in the transformation of habitats in
response to the changes. Sea-level rise will also impact our
marsh by reducing the survivability of marshland vegetation.
Without efforts to reduce the marsh’s vulnerability to sea level
rise, loss of our coastal wetlands will continue to occur.
Fortifying areas within the marsh through habitat restoration
efforts and other green-infrastructure projects can reduce
impacts to marshland habitat. The current questions relative
to this are “Where are our most vulnerable areas within the
marsh?” and “What restoration efforts should we consider?”
The Conservancy in partnership with the College of
Department of Natural Resources as a marine scientist. There
he managed research programs in seafood health, aquaculture,
wild crustaceans, and sea-level rise impacts on the marshes of
the ACE Basin as well as serving as an adjunct graduate faculty
member at the College of Charleston. John points out that while
we often think first of destruction of our beach when water
levels rise, of equal or greater concern should be our marshes.
We have 10 miles of beach, but we have 50 miles of marsh
edge. During a storm we picture water surging onto the
Island from the ocean shore, but Kiawah’s well-established
dune system protects the Island from much of this impact.
More significant flooding can occur from the marsh side
and is of more immediate concern for flooding of properties.
Our extensive marsh system provides significant protection
by dissipating wave energy that erodes the shoreline. Rising
sea levels cause the marsh to migrate landward, but if it
is blocked, the marsh can drown, leaving our properties
vulnerable. Another concern that John emphasized is our
fresh groundwater reserves, essential to Island vegetation,
that are also vulnerable to saltwater intrusion from rising
sea levels. Overall John emphasized that action has to be the
product of the entire community working cooperatively using
the best means to identify issues and finding the optimum
solutions for them.
No doubt conversations and actions on Kiawah Island to
address sea-level rise and flood mitigation will continue for
months and years. The important feature of all this is that the
entire Kiawah community is determined to keep on keeping
on. We obviously do not have all or perhaps even many of
the answers, but we do know that doing something is far
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Naturally Kiawah