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At a Cape Cod Landmark, a Strategic Retreat From the Ocean - The New York Times Page 2 of 4
The result here at the Cape Cod National Seashore raises a practical dilemma in
a setting meant to be a place to escape: how to react to rising seas and eroding
coastlines as climate change looms for coastal communities across the nation. The
decision here was to demolish the parking lot and construct a new one 125 feet
behind it, allowing for a restored shoreline in front of it.
"We're retreating," said George E. Price Jr., the superintendent of the Cape Cod
National Seashore, which is run by the National Park Service. Other facilities at the
beach have already been rebuilt farther back from the water.
In many parts of the country, like New York, New Jersey and New Orleans,
property-damaging storms, tidal surges and floods have been met with the urge to
shore up and rebuild. Experts say the project at Herring Cove is a fairly rare example
of the opposite approach, called "managed retreat," which involves moving away
from the coastline. Mr. Price and many who use the beach here do not want to fight
coastal change; they simply want to adapt to it.
"It reflects a sound planning approach that is regrettably uncommon so far,"
said Michael B. Gerrard, a professor at Columbia Law School and the director of the
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law there.
"As sea-level rise advances," Mr. Gerrard added, the concept of managed retreat
is "going to become increasingly important in large parts of the country."
Managed retreat comes in many forms, in addition to the physical movement of
infrastructure: buyback programs, in which a government purchases vulnerable
properties from private owners, or bans on new construction or hard armoring of the
coast in areas susceptible to flooding or storm damage. But it is a wrenching
decision, especially when private property is involved, and is politically difficult to
carry out, or even to suggest. That makes the project at Herring Cove, and others on
Cape Cod and around the country, all the more unusual.
"I think that could well serve as a model for what could happen elsewhere," Mr.
Gerrard said. "However, it's easier in this circumstance, where privately owned
property is not endangered or diminished in value. It becomes much more difficult
when private property is at risk."
App. 440
http;//www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/us/at-a-cape-cod-landmark-a-strategic-retreat-from-the-ocean.... 8/1/2016