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At a Cape Cod Landmark, a Strategic Retreat From the Ocean - The New York Times Page 3 of 4
The majority of the nation's coasts are retreating, said Rob Thieler, a coastal
geologist for the United States Geological Survey who is based in Woods Hole, Mass.,
and Cape Cod is home to vexing areas of erosion like Herring Cove. It is difficult, Mr.
Thieler said, to know whether individual problems with coastal erosion result from
sea-level rise due to climate change, natural environmental fluctuations or a series of
damaging storms over the last few years, but this much is known:
"Given the forecast of future sea level rise over the next century and beyond,
every problem that we have along the coast right now will only increase," Mr. Thieler
said. "That, I think, ties back to why managed retreat, in places where you can
employ it, is a good option."
Some New England towns have used state grant money to support resilience
plans, like the relocation of a parking lot and retaining wall on Squibnocket Beach, in
Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard. And, one day last week, a new parking lot, farther
away from the water, was drying at Breakwater Beach, in Brewster, farther south on
the Cape, part of a retreat project that had drawn passionate objections from
neighbors who did not want to see it take away from an open park space near the
water.
"Change is very difficult, especially when it's your favorite place in the world,"
said Chris Miller, the director of the town's department of natural resources.
At the moment, the Herring Cove parking lot is in a kind of limbo. The Park
Service is in the midst of a $300,000 repair that will allow the lot to operate at about
half capacity until officials get $3 million to move the lot back, which they hope to do
in 2018.
For Don Robitaille, 84, a retired soda machine repairman who had driven his
camper here from Maine for the contentment of sitting on a beach chair with a book
of puzzles and an open view of the ocean, it was still a perfect getaway.
Some beachgoers worried the eventual relocation of the lot would change the
experience of being there. But others in town, like Ms. Avellar, are merely frustrated
that the big move is not happening sooner, and that tourists have flocked here only
to find a mess.
App. 441
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/us/at-a-cape-cod-landmark-a-strategic-retreat-from-the-ocean.... 8/1/2016