The following feature was part of a special magazine-style publication called "Delmarva Millennium, Volume II, published in December 1999 by Thomson-Chesapeake.It was titled "Smother Nature?" and subtitled "People are intruding on Delmarva's lands and waters like never before -- How will nature fare?"
By Terry Plowman
A stand of old pine and hardwood trees near Milton, Del., could be a symbol for Delmarva's ecological future.
And the trees' recent close call with the chain saw could foretell that future -- whether it's hopeful or not depends on your interpretation.
The trees are on a site being developed as a golf course, a project that was going forward with government approval until a local birdwatcher expressed concern about the blue herons that used the trees as a nesting area.
No one had noticed the nesting area when the site was studied, but because of the birdwatcher's 11th-hour alarm, the developers reworked their plans to preserve it -- and they renamed the golf course The Rookery.
The salvation of the rookery, which was found to also be a potential habitat for the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel, was seen by some as a hopeful sign that development can be sensitive to the peninsula's environmental needs. But others were troubled that the valuable habitat almost slipped through the cracks, and saw its near-destruction as a metaphor for Delmarva's besieged forestlands.
Dwindling forests
Some people may think of beach erosion as the biggest threat to nature on the peninsula, but planned replenishment projects make that natural process far less ominous than the human destruction of the region's woodlands. Delmarva, already denuded of 75 percent of the forest cover that stood in pre-colonial times, continues to suffer rapid deforestation in the name of progress. And that deforestation will likely continue into the next century.
"Upland forests are the most imperiled habitat (on Delmarva)," says Rick McCorkle, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. "And they provide habitat for some of the rarest species."
Besides simply eliminating habitat, development also breaks up what's left, which is a problem for some species of songbirds, for example, that require large unbroken tracts of forest for survival. "Because of suburban sprawl, we have mostly fragments (of forest) that are too small to support the requirements of these species, "McCorkle says.
Ecological imbalance
Lloyd Alexander, Delaware's wildlife administrator, agrees that there is great concern about the loss of species on Delmarva, but he also notes this irony: while the number of species may decrease, the population of some species is increasing, causing an imbalance in the ecosystem.
For example, both white-tailed deer and snow geese are now overabundant because of habitat changes, and they in turn cause other ecological changes as they eat certain plants out of existence. The end result is a much less diverse ecosystem, Alexander says.
Predicting exactly how Delmarva's wildlife populations will fare in the next century would require a Ouija board, Alexander says, but he's sure of one simple fact: increasing development for the benefit of humans "will have a profound effect on the number of plants and animals."
Alexander notes that as development of Delmarva's natural areas continues, there will be more conflicts between people and animals. For example, "turkey vultures will use a particular woodlot for decades, then (because of new development) they become an annoyance that people want to get rid of," Alexander says. He notes that similar problems exist, and will continue, with deer, raccoons, possums, red foxes, resident Canada geese, and other species that find shelter or food in housing developments.
Beach erosion
While forestland depletion continues at a rapid pace, a slower, but even more inexorable process is taking place along Delmarva's waterways: shoreline erosion.
When most people think of beach erosion, they picture the dramatic damage caused by severe coastal storms. But the more relentless form of erosion is the gradual rise in sea level caused by global warming. This causes "shoreline migration," the westward movement of barrier islands.
While this rise in sea level will continue for hundreds, even thousands, of years, its effects on Delmarva's ocean coast will vary greatly -- south of the Ocean City Inlet, from Assateague to the southern tip of the peninsula, the shoreline will recede 15 feet or more a year, because no protective measures are taken on the mostly publicly owned land. North of the inlet is another story: both Maryland and Delaware plan to spend millions of dollars (at least 50 percent of it in federal funds) to regularly replace sand that Mother Nature takes away, in order to protect the billions of dollars of value in manmade structures and the tourism industry.
Unreplenished areas north of the inlet will continue to erode naturally -- a good example is the Delaware beach near Cape Henlopen, where World War II observation towers seem to be gradually moving out to sea. Twenty years ago, they were 150 feet from the ocean's edge -- today they stand in it at high tide, and in another 20 years they will be offshore islands.
Less obvious to many Delmarva residents and visitors, but just as relentless, is the erosion of the peninsula's inland shorelines, along its bays and wetlands.
Such manmade changes as the stabilization of the Indian River Inlet and dredging of the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal have caused dramatic increases in bay tides. According to Wendy Carey, a coastal process specialist with the Delaware Sea Grant Program, the result of those higher tides over many years is that marshes have encroached into adjacent forest, while suffering greater inundation where they meet the bay. That landward movement will continue at varying rates, depending on how steep the wetland's slope is, but it currently ranges from about 1 to 6 feet a year.
Because wetlands are being inundated or eroded at a faster rate than they are moving into adjacent forests, they are in danger of disappearing in some areas. Although this is a natural long-term effect of sea-level rise, it can be aggravated by human intervention, such as the construction of bulkheads or the placement of fill, which prevent a wetland's landward migration.
Water pollution
Of course, no human effect on wetlands and waterways is greater than the pollution people inflict upon them.
Whether direct pollution, such as the flushing of sewage plant effluent into waterways, or indirect, such as the overfertilization of farmlands that sends nutrients into groundwater, the fouling of Delmarva's waters will continue to be its biggest environmental problem in the next century.
"I'm not optimistic that in 20 or 30 years water quality will be improved," says Jim Steffens, chairman of the Delaware chapter of the Sierra Club. He notes that even if all municipal sewer plants stopped discharging into waterways, even if all septic tanks were removed, even if runoff from non-specific sources were curtailed, it would take years for pollutants already in the watershed to flush out. Because those events are unlikely, some degree of pollution will degrade Delmarva's waterways well into the future.
Although Bruce Richards, executive director of Delaware's Center for the Inland Bays, agrees that "I don't see (water quality) getting much better in the near future," he holds out more hope than Steffens for the long term. Despite increased development pressure around the bays, Richards believes that some factors will improve water quality: more sewer systems to replace septic tanks, efforts to restore bay grasses and preserve forested buffer zones, solutions to fertilizer runoff problems and a better scientific understanding of the bays' "microbial communities." "The future of the inland bays will be cleaner, with less nutrients, more fish and clearer water," Richards asserts.
Delmarva's much larger bay system -- the Chesapeake -- will also be cleaner in the future, says Michael Shultz, vice president for public affairs at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "I'm optimistic," he says. "Our vision of the future has healthy oyster reefs and underwater grasses throughout the bay." The foundation's 1999 report on the bay was mixed in its evaluation, however -- at a September press conference, foundation president William C. Baker said, "The Chesapeake Bay is getting better, but the progress is too slow, and the bay is still a system dangerously out of balance."
Some hopeful signs
Not all signs point to a dismal future for Delmarva's natural landscape, as some good news balances the bad. For example:
* While environmental officials say forests are the most threatened natural resource in the region, 76,000 acres of forestland recently came under state and private protection in one of the biggest single conservation purchases in Delmarva history. Shultz, of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, called the purchase "a very significant model" of public-private cooperation, and said he he hopes it will inspire similar land-protection purchases. Meanwhile, such groups as the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, the Lower Shore Land Trust and the Nature Conservancy are gaining momentum in their efforts to preserve open lands through purchases and voluntary easements.
* Although agricultural land is being developed at a rapid pace, farmland preservation programs have brought tens of thousands of acres under protection all over Delmarva, through direct purchase, easement programs and other incentives.
* Despite population increases that are driving sprawling development all over the peninsula, many more people are showing greater environmental concern -- hundreds participate in annual beach cleanup efforts, more citizens than ever are showing up at public hearings about land use, and membership has increased in conservation groups (the Sierra Club, for example, has seen about a 25-percent increase in Delaware in recent years).
Environmental writer and Delmarva resident Tom Horton says he believes public consciousness has been raised, partly because of recent concern about pfiesteria in the region's waters.
"People are getting more aware of the connection between what they do and what effect it has on the environment," Horton says. He's quick to note that "we haven't turned the corner (on environmental problems) -- but at least we can see the corner up ahead."