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Save of the Week: Climate Change Action on North Carolina's Albemarle Peninsula

Sea level rise: It is perhaps one of the best understood and most inevitable consequences of climate change. Scientists say that coastal areas around the globe could be hit with potentially devastating economic and environmental consequences if they don't prepare for rising sea levels. But there is hope. On the Albemarle Peninsula of North Carolina, The Nature Conservancy is developing strategies to protect existing natural areas from the rising seas.

The Conservancy is examining the effect of climate change on our ability to follow the four steps of Conservation by Design, our plan for conservation success. As part of this effort, the Albemarle Peninsula was chosen as the site to demonstrate "taking action," one step in Conservation by Design. "We wanted a place where there was really no doubt as to what the climate threat and its pace was," said Earl Saxon, formerly the head of the Global Climate Change Initiative's Adaptation Group. "We wanted a nice, simple, clear impact of climate change."

The Albemarle Region's rich mosaic of forests, dunes, wetlands, rivers and sounds provides an extraordinarily productive natural system. It is part of the largest closed lagoon in the world, and part of the second largest and healthiest estuary in the eastern United States. Climate change could spell disaster for conservation efforts there: Up to half of the lands at risk from rising seas are conservation lands established by The Nature Conservancy, the Conservation Fund, the N.C. Coastal Land Trust, and other private and public agencies.

Working with researchers from Duke University and the Conservancy's North Carolina chapter, the Adaptation Group has developed several tactics to help slow the inundation of the Albemarle Peninsula and the transformation of the ecosystems there. Negotiations will soon begin with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Defense on a pilot project to test some of the tactics on publicly owned land, before beginning to apply them more broadly.

One strategy has the duel benefit of preserving habitat diversity while preventing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere, said Chris Zganjar, who is managing the project for the Adaptation Group. As the sea rises, drainage ditches originally dug to provide farmland and prevent mosquitoes are now acting as canals—transporting salt water into the Albemarle Peninsula, where the topsoils are mostly comprised of peat. As the peat is inundated with salt water, a chemical reaction releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. With proper management of the ditches, more of the peat will stay intact and fewer greenhouse gases will be released into the atmosphere.

The Adaptation Group is also considering other short-term restoration projects like establishing cypress forests on prior-converted wetlands, restoring submerged aquatic vegetation beds, establishing reefs to provide habitat for native oysters, and planting brackish marsh grasses on shore lands that are likely to be submerged.

"There's no doubt about it—climate change is a reality," said Saxon. "But we have tools we can use to slow the effects of a warming planet on ecosystems, and to help them adapt."

For more information:

• The Nature Conservancy in North Carolina
  Together with our members and conservation partners, the North Carolina Chapter of The Nature Conservancy has protected over a half million acres of critical natural lands.
• Conservation by Design
  Conservation by Design is a strategic, science-based planning process that helps us identify the highest-priority places: landscapes and seascapes that, if conserved, promise to ensure biodiversity over the long term.
• The Nature Conservancy's Global Climate Change Initiative
  Recognizing that global warming is a critical threat to the survival of plants, animals and natural communities around the world, The Nature Conservancy has developed three key strategies to address climate change.
• Nature Conservancy Magazine: Climate Change
  Scientific research shows that the Earth's climate is changing. Climate change, commonly known as global warming, is caused by the emission of heat trapping gases produced by vehicles, power plants and deforestation.
• Archive of our past Saves of the Week and Success Stories
  Read more about our work to save the last great places on Earth.