Threats to Maine's largest salt marsh highlight the impact of the climate crisis and other factors on natural landscapes.
What's happening?
The 3,200-acre Scarborough Marsh is being hemmed in by development, while pollution, sea level rise, and increasingly frequent and severe storms are also causing problems, as the Portland Press Herald reported in conjunction with The Maine Monitor.
Marshes — this one is home to red-winged blackbirds, great egrets, spiny sticklebacks, bats, minks, and Harbor seals, among other wildlife — can usually migrate to stay healthy. If they have nowhere to go, though, the water can stagnate or rise, which kills vegetation or drowns the peat.
The nonprofit Friends of Scarborough Marsh is asking property owners to sell, donate, or conserve via easements their land to protect the area, which can bring tax breaks but usually does not return market value, per the report.
The Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center has become prone to flooding, and one of its parking lots disappeared into the Nonesuch River. The town, along with Cape Elizabeth, recently approved the removal of a rarely used road through the nearby Spurwink Marsh, which "will restore tidal flow to 67 acres of the upper marsh," home to the endangered salt marsh sparrow, according to the Press Herald and Monitor.
Why is this important?
"We're talking a lot about the road, but for me, I think this is really about an investment in our marsh," Scarborough Town Councilor Jonathan Anderson told the outlets. "The marsh is really integral to who we are as a community and we need to do more to protect it even if [the road] wasn't getting flooded."
The report also noted that Route 1, where the Audubon Center is located, floods multiple times each year as a result of sea level rise and intense storms. The building's floor has been replaced, though state officials seeking a more permanent solution may raise or move the center.
The confluence of events is largely the result of anthropogenic climate changes. Our use of dirty energy sources to heat and cool our homes, power transportation, and support industry results in massive amounts of heat-trapping gases, enveloping Earth like a blanket. This drives the rapidly rising global temperature and causes extreme weather events to happen more often and with greater severity.
What's being done about the salt marsh and other natural areas?
The Scarborough Marsh is being protected as best it can, though with nowhere to go, the natural feature remains at risk. The larger issue is that we need to move faster to address the underlying issues, which "will undo a lot of the development progress made over the past years," according to the United Nations. "It will also provoke mass migrations that will lead to instability and wars."
This urgent problem can be addressed by switching to an electric vehicle, electrifying your home, and cutting the consumption of goods that contribute to planet-warming pollution.
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