I love my eastern Virginia island homes - they are two separate islands, but, to me, they are both "home." Assteague Island is the outrider, farthest to the east, and is a long sandy barrier island that lies in both the state of Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Assateague Island is a designated National Seashore, and the southern end (in Virginia) also contains the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Chincoteague Island, today, is made up of four islands - Chincoteague, Little Piney, Marsh, and Piney Islands. White people have lived on Chincoteague since the 1640s, and they moved over onto Assateague, then back onto Chincoteague, when the US government took over the management of Assateague.
My Whealton family ancestors received one of the first land patents on Chincoteague back in 1643; my Tunnel family ancestors settled near present-day Oak Hall in 1650. My ancestors were a combination of watermen, fishermen, and farmers - near, and on, Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. Nearly 100 years ago my great-grandfather and grandfather tended the Assateague Lighthouse and the Killock Shoals Lighthouse. The family has seen a lot of changes on both islands over the passage of years - I, personally, can remember when there was another 800 to 1000 feet of sand dunes and beach on the southern end of Assateague...
Chincoteague and Assateague are barrier islands. They change yearly - parts are eaten away by the action of the wind and surf, while, in other places, debris and sand build up the land mass. Following is a newspaper report from the
Salisbury Daily Times that was written by staff writer Carol Vaughn, and was published yesterday:
"Islands Caught in Middle of Debate"
CHINCOTEAGUE -- Local businessman S. Scott Chesson was angry when he testified earlier this year before a house subcommittee about U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service plans for nearby Assateague Island. "Our Federal Government seems to be on a course to turn Chincoteague Island into a ghost town. ... Unfortunately, the business people of Chincoteague Island no longer view the Fish and Wildlife as our partner -- they have become an impediment and a threat to our livelihood."
At issue is a federal agency struggling to deal with the impacts of coastal erosion, sea-level rise and climate change, and a town seeking to hold on to the tourism industry that has exploded over the last 50 years. The epicenter of the controversy is a 961-space parking lot on Assateague Island -- a pristine barrier that loses ground to the ocean every year. The short-term erosion rate averages more than 25 feet a year but a recurring spit of sand is building at Toms Cove Hook, growing at a rate of more than 120 feet a year. "We're just running out of real estate" on the site where historically, the recreational beach and parking lot has been, said Joe McCauley, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's regional lead working on a new management plan for the refuge. Some of the erosion is the nature of a barrier island, but "we're seeing sea level and climate change having an additional effect," he said.
Life changed on this barrier island -- where Marguerite Henry was inspired to write the Newbery Honor book, "Misty of Chincoteague" -- when the bridge to Assateague from Chincoteague was built in the 1950s. Tourism has evolved and grown to be the area's main economic driver.
The local chapter of The Nature Conservancy supports federal efforts to consider climate change in the equation for Assateague. "Unfortunately, climate change will very likely have profound effects on the location and nature of habitats at Chincoteague NWR and surrounding coastal ecosystems," wrote Virginia Coast Reserve Director Steve Parker last year. Parker commended the federal agency for its pro-active approach to planning for how to adapt in a way that preserves the ecology at the wildlife refuge and the multiple conservation and public uses.
Which is why business owners like Chesson are worried about a scenario that no longer lets visitors park near the beach and instead depends on a shuttle bus system. "We are scared because a future with limited access to the beach on Assateague Island via a bus service will destroy jobs, diminish property values and close the doors of family owned and operated businesses," Chesson said. "Our town's people have mortgages on their homes, business loans and children to feed and educate." The town business infrastructure includes 962 motel rooms, 1,143 camp sites and 670 rental homes and cottages.
Tom Bonetti, lead planner for the refuge management plan, said the agency had no intention of replacing the parking lot with a remote shuttle system. Instead, the remote lot was a safeguard in the event that the existing lot lost some of it's 961 spaces and overflow parking was needed. The parking lot has been replaced four times in the last 10 years because of flooding and storms, costing between $200,000 to $700,000 each time. Nor'Ida destroyed the parking lot in 2009 and most recently, Hurricane Irene left 18-inches of sand on some parts of the lot and created a 100-yard-wide breach just north of the parking area. It later filled in.
Greg Merritt remembers what the beach at the Assateague Island National Seashore looked like 40 years ago. "It used to have really high sand dunes," said Merritt, a retired journalist and Chincoteague Island native who worked summers at the seashore in the early 1970s. "It's a lot different over there now from what it used to be."
The beach is a shadow of its former self. Maps show the recreational beach at the southern end of Assateague Island lost 800 feet since 1962. A snack bar with inside seating was torn down because of encroaching seas -- so were bathhouses with running water. It is impossible to tell just how much is due to sea level rise itself because storm overwash is also a factor in shoreline erosion on Assateague, said geologist and barrier island expert Orrin Pilkey in June, when he visited the refuge to lecture on the effect of sea level rise on barrier islands. But projections being used to develop a management plan for the national seashore indicate the sea level could rise between 3.5 and 9 inches by 2040.
Lou Hinds, manager of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, said it's obvious land is disappearing as a result of sea level rise.
The sad part: "There's nothing the American public or government agencies can do," he said.
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