NORFOLK, Va. — Over the years shorelines can shift, especially with sea level rise and erosion. That can be a challenge for those who live by the water and those who want to protect the necessary natural areas.
Tuesday, folks with the Elizabeth River Project, Wetlands Watch and Coastal Virginia Conservancy marked a milestone for conservationists. The groups met at the Ryan Resilience Lab to sign a rolling easement, a legal agreement, they said is the first of its kind in the nation.
The Norfolk-based Ryan Resilience Lab was built to show community members solutions to rising sea levels. The rolling easement, that plans for the future of the site's wetlands, is one of those solutions.
"Unless we plan for where they can go, they aren't going anywhere, they are just drowning and we are losing them," said Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of Elizabeth River Project.
Before the easement, if sea levels rose over the wetlands on the property, they would likely disappear.
Now, when waters rise too high, the easement will ensure there's room enough for the wetlands, by allowing structures to be taken down.
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"We will take down the building and give it back to the river," explained Jackson of the Ryan Resilience Lab.
"This [rolling easement] is unique in that it requires the structures on the property be removed and the property return to wild, native habitat when sea level rise encroaches so much on the property it is no longer safe to have a building here and people working in the building," said Mary Carson-Stiff, Wetlands Watch executive director.
Conservationists said the effort to help the wetlands are essential.
"They are how nature meant our sea level, our waterways to adapt to flooding," explained Jackson. She added that wetlands are critical to ecosystem health and filter runoff.
The easement will also ensure there continues to be public access to the property despite rising water.
"This is groundbreaking for our community," said Carson-Stiff. "Our region has the highest rate of sea level rise on the east coast, we are dealing with accelerated change . . . this is providing a template that others can use and have the same practices happen in their house."
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Carson-Stiff adds it's a template to live amid an ever-changing environment.
"We really hope we don't see what is happening in North Carolina on our coastline here in Virginia, and this could be one way to help avoid that problem all together," said Carson-Stiff.
The rolling easement means the wetlands at the site now and the community can exist together for generations.
Experts predict that more than 80% of wetlands in our area will drown in the next century.
