WRACKLINES: A CONNECTICUT SEA GRANT PUBLICATION 1

ACKLINESSea Grant

ConnecticutWVolume 13, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2013-14

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E C O N N E C T I C U T S E A G R A N T C O L L E G E P R O G R A M A T T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F C O N N E C T I C U T

C E L E B R A T I N G 2 5 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y • S H E L L F I S H E R I E S & S H E L L F I S H R E S O U R C E S • S A LT M A R S H S P A R R O W

. ..adapting to realities of climate

change

From the EDITOR

BE THE CHANGEThis issue has a lot to do with changes taking place in our communities and in the world. Traditionally, this time of year is one in which many people contemplate how they want to change themselves for the better; starting the coming year with a clean slate. This type of change begins in one’s head. Statisticians say that the resolutions people make for the new Year are usually personal, often pertaining to weight loss, working out, saving money, or quitting smoking. Sound familiar? May I suggest taking a few minutes to think about how you want your community, and your world to change–or not change–as well?

Visionary leader Mahatma Gandhi of India once said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” People can feel frustrated when their plans to change the world on a grandiose scale don’t work out. But as Gandhi suggested, you can lead by example.

People, businesses, and governments are taking positive actions to reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases, cut waste, promote green infrastructure, and conserve water and energy in our everyday activities. As this issue of Wrack Lines demonstrates, communities trying to adapt to a changing climate are working hard to become more resilient in the face of natural disasters.

Pop artist Andy Warhol said, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” This holds true whether we are talking about erosion and coastal flooding, or anticipating a thriving clam and oyster industry for Long Island Sound, or losing those extra holiday pounds. Real change begins with individuals setting goals, taking steps, and engaging with others. Some ways that you can engage for change in the community include participating in local government, serving on planning commissions, and volunteering at churches, hospitals, libraries, nonprofit organizations, animal shelters, and more. If you have a strong opinion on an issue, let your voice be heard by speaking up at meetings, writing an op-ed or letter to the editor, or calling in to that radio talk show. Or simply let your everyday activities and attitude inspire others. It’s up to you.

Above all, best wishes for a happy and healthy new year that is full of new possibilities.

Peg Van Patten

Peg Van Patten, editor

STAFFPeg Van Patten, Editor

GRAPHIC DESIGNMaxine A. Marcy

EDITORIAL BOARD

Elizabeth Anderson

Sylvain De Guise, ex officio

Edward C. Monahan

Gregory Stone

Peg Van Patten, ex officio

Robert Wyss

WRACK LINES is published twice

a year or as resources allow by the

Connecticut Sea Grant College Program

at the University of Connecticut. Any

opinions expressed therein are solely

those of the authors.

There is no charge for Connecticut

residents, but donations to help with

postage and printing costs are always

appreciated.

Change of address, subscription

information, cancellation requests, or

editorial correspondence should be

sent to the address below:

Connecticut Sea Grant

Communications Office

University of Connecticut

1080 Shennecossett Rd.

Groton, CT 06340-6048

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Volume 13, No.2 Fall/Winter 2013

CTSG-13-13 ISSN 2151-2825 (print) ISSN 2151-2833 (online)

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Features

Volume 13, No. 2 CONTENTS

C E L E B R AT I N G , T H E N A N D N OW

Of Interest

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C O A STA L TOW N S A D A PT TOR E A L I T I ES O F C L I M AT EC H A N G E

The effects of climate change on the rate of sea level rise have hit the streets of every coastal town in Connecticut. The future will bring more waters creeping inland not only on the coast of New England, but around the world.

4 C E L E B R AT I N G C O N N ECT I C U T S E AG R A N T ’ S 25 T HA N N I V E R S A R Y October marked the 25th anniversary of Connecticut Sea Grant’s designation as a Sea Grant College Program. Take a walk down memory lane with us as we look back over 25 years of excellence in research, outreach and education.

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ST R E N GT H E N I N G C O A STA L R ES I L I E N C ET H R O U G H G R E E N I N F R A ST R U CT U R E New and innovative natural (“green”) systems for stormwater management are being intro-duced to many communities. Bio-engineering approaches are getting increased attention with the growing awareness of climate change.

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A V I S I O N FO R C O N N ECT I C U T S H E L L F I S H Shellfish play a critical role in the marine ecosystem. Filter-feeeding shellfish such as oysters, clams, scallops, and mussels can improve water quality and clarity.

15V I D EO S E R I ES - S E AW E E D

A new six-part video series on YouTube is a free digital how-to handbook for culturing four different species of economically-important seaweeds. Learn to grow kelp, Gracilaria, Irish moss, and Porphya (nori).

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Long Island Sound is not just a big enamel bathtub filling up with seawater. We need to consider the relationship between the rising sea and changing shoreline. We may not know exactly how high our seas will rise, and we may know even less about how our shorelines will retreat, but we must plan for the future.

S A LT M A R S H S PA R R OW This small, secretive sparrow is a denizen of our coastal salt marshes. Due to its restricted habitat, it is highly sensitive to sea level rise. It is currently listed as the Species of Special Concern.

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R I D I N G T H E R I S I N GT I D E : FAT H O M I N G O U RC H A N G I N G C O A ST A N D F U T U R E

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By Christine Woodside

Not too long ago, a municipal conservation director’s job centered around maps, meetings and the occasional field walk. But these are not normal times. The effects of climate change on the rate of sea-level rise has hit the streets of every coastal town in Connecticut. The Greenwich conservation direc-tor, Denise M. Savageau, has added a new duty to her job: during major storms, she works at the town’s emergency operations center, where, watching flood gauges, she directs firefighters and ambulance drivers away from roads she knows will always flood.

What used to be normal life for coastal New England has changed. “At moon tide, we’re starting to see normal flooding,” Savageau says. “That’s going to be more and more the case.” Greenwich, like many coastal towns now, has changed building standards in its comprehensive plan. It has altered drainage en-gineering standards for roads. Those who never dealt with floods before find themselves as of this year living in newly identified flood zones under new Fed-eral Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps. Officials struggle to protect their low-lying sewage treatment plants. Residents come to town hall asking how they can elevate their old houses above the flood waters.

Coastal Towns adapt to REALITIES of climate change

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The future will bring more waters creeping inland not only on the coast of New England, but around the world. How much? Scientists are not certain. Daniel Grossman in his book, Deep Water, writes: “The reasonable range of possible sea level rise this century varies from a couple feet to about 16 feet. The difference between the two ends of this spectrum in terms of cost and suffering is huge.” Two feet of sea-level rise over one century might be accommodated. But, Grossman writes, 16 feet would “catastrophically damage” coastal properties. “Shoreline homes along much of the U.S. coast, in-cluding some of our most valuable property, would be past hope,” he writes.

It’s time to get used to at least the low-end of the scale, southern New England officials are showing in so many ways.

A new report, “Cost Efficient Climate Change Adaptation in the North Atlantic,” (see http://seagrant.uconn.edu/CEANA/) by Judd Schechtman and Michael Brady of Rutgers University and supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sea Grant, and the North Atlantic Regional Team, profiles 34 cities, towns, or regional areas from Virginia to Maine. Municipal officials no longer spend any time asking if climate change is real. Climate change is here, and its effects have damaged and threatened roads, houses, and facilities for several years as the rate of sea-level rise and storm surges have increased faster than anyone would have predicted 50 years ago.

Greenwich dates its major problems with flood-ing to at least 2007, when major floods during two storms covered both Route 1 and the Merritt Park-way in Connecticut’s westernmost town of 62,000 people. Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012 brought worse to the already altered seas. Sea level today has reached barely below street levels in many areas.

Groton, the southeastern Connecticut town where submarines are built at Electric Boat, has been dealing with the fact that the coast has moved 100 feet inland since 1888. And the report quotes new research showing that the rate of sea-level rise there has doubled since 1980 to 4 millimeters per year. Groton, a town of 40,000 that includes the western half of Mystic, took part in a planning exercise funded by the U.S. Environmental Protec-

tion Agency and the state of Connecticut in 2010. One hundred officials attended three workshops. (See the report, published in 2011, at http://bit.ly/18WGexh.) They heard the sobering statistics including that sea-level rise has sped up to about 4 millimeters per year in their region, and that major storms hitting land are more intense today. And they discussed major changes. These include new zoning regulations that encourage development away from the coast, a review of where the town schools are located, and an effort to teach the public about which areas are prone to flooding. The struggles of these towns, and officials’ willingness to change how they build and protect their infrastructures because of climate change, mark a sea change for Ameri-can officials that has begun in local boardrooms. As the report says, “Local governments are on the forefront of responding to and preparing for coastal threats, andthey are more than willing and able to take on the task. Localities recognize the interdependent nature of managing coastal risks from climate change, and that partnership is necessary for successful planning to work.

Guilford, the third Connecticut town the report pro-files, has joined with The Nature Conservancy and Yale University in planning for climate adaptation. The con-servancy developed a GIS-based tool (see www.coastal-resilience.org) showing how the rising seas are expected to change ten regions around the world—including New York and Connecticut, where the sea levels hover only inches below billions of dollars’ worth of coastal property; the Gulf of Mexico; the Gulf of California; Puget Sound; the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Florida Keys; and more. The report suggests a framework to assess and act upon the risks these changes bring to local areas. Guilford, using the information it gleaned, has drafted a coastal resilience plan that the partners hoped would inspire other towns, said George Kral, the Guilford town planner.

Pulling together when it might not seem so easy

The struggle to adapt highlights the differences between the rich and the not-so-rich, those who can afford to raise their houses and rebuild, and those who cannot. Making the transition has pulled some communities more tightly together in an encouraging way. In Guil-ford, residents this year voted to use local taxes for anexpensive raising of an often-flooded road to the wealthy coastal neighborhood known as Old Quarry.

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Kral, the town planner, says the vote shows that residents feel they’re all together in the fight to save property values.

And in Greenwich, officials remain committed to helping residents find ways to stay in their coastal houses even when they struggle to pay bills. That town’s population earns the highest in-come, per capita, in the country and the median house sale price approaches $1.8 million, but Sav-ageau says the populace includes a block of middle-class families and retired people who have passed their houses on to their children for generations. New FEMA maps were already in progress when Sandy hit. Resi-

dents planning to rebuild were waiting for the new standards to be put in place. Then Sandy hit in October 2012. Savageau says that residents whose houses weren’t even in the flood zones in the old FEMA maps told her the water had covered their front steps during Sandy. If Sandy had included major accumulations of rain, Savageau says, the water would have crept higher. The biggest change, perhaps, in the coastal towns, is in people’s attitudes. They seem to know that Sandy wasn’t the last of it. Residents are going to town halls and asking for advice on how to rebuild. “People are starting to say, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ ” Savageau says.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christine Woodside

has been writing

about climate change

since 1997. She is a

Deep River, Connecticut-

based freelance writer.

Learn more about her work at

www.chriswoodside.com.

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The town of Guilford will raise this causeway into the Old Quarry neighborhood, because of frequent flooding.

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By Peg Van Patten

C e l e b ra t i n g C o n n e c t i c u t S e a G ra n t ’s 2 5 t h a n n i ve rs a r y

Change is the theme for this issue, and Connecticut Sea Grant has had its share of changes over the years since it began. The well-kept secret is that the ability to rapidly change and evolve as coastal and marine issues emerge is one of the program’s greatest strengths.

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C e l e b ra t i n g C o n n e c t i c u t S e a G ra n t ’s 2 5 t h a n n i ve rs a r yThe Early Years

October 2013 marked the 25th anniversary of Connecticut Sea Grant’s College Program Designation. This designation is the highest rank that a Sea Grant program can achieve, and Connecticut Sea Grant had to work to achieve that level of excellence. While all of the accomplishments of those years would only fit in a large book, it seemed appropriate to walk down Memory Lane and hit some highlights.

The program started on a very small scale, way back in 1974, when Richard Nixon was still president. George Geer led the program then, as the Marine Advisory Program.

It wasn’t until 1980 when the first formal Sea Grant director position was established, along with a commitment to begin a competitive marine research program. Since then, Connecticut Sea Grant has had three visionary leaders.

All three had experience in academic research as well as administration.

Each brought unique expertise and ideas to enhance the program.

The late Vic Scottron, the first formal Sea Grant director, from 1980 to 1985. was an emeritus civil engineering professor. He was director of both the UConn Institute of Water

Resources and Sea Grant. Scottron had a vision to establish a full-fledged Sea Grant Program, and convinced a skeptical university in “the Land of Steady Habits” that we needed one. Under Scottron’s leadership, the program grew and the first research competition was held in 1982.

Those first early research efforts included projects on managing hard clams and oysters, the life cycle of

soft shell clams, and managing dredge spoils. In addition, an education project with Project Oceanology introduced high school students to marine research.

The next round of funding in 1984 added crustacean endocrinology and seaweed physiology .

After Scottron’s departure in 1985, Extension Leader Norman Bender served as acting director until Edward C. Monahan became director in 1986, serving until 2005. Ed was a physical oceanographer noted for his research in breaking waves and air-sea exchange. He expressed a strong commitment to scientific research.

In 1987, a communicator became a priority addition to the program, to get the Sea Grant message out and oversee publications. I joined the crew in 1987. At the time, “Connecticut Currents” newsletter, begun by Sea Grant’s Marine Advisory Program in the early days,

Since then, Connecticut Sea Grant has had three visionary leaders. Victor Scottron, Ph.D., Edward C. Monahan, Ph.D., D.Sc.,Sylvain De Guise, D.M.V., Ph.D

Bob Whitlatch, UConn Marine Sciences, one of the first researchers to carry out a Connecticut Sea Grant project.

circa 1988

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was put together with a typewriter, black and white print photos, and a wax roller. In the ‘90s, Nor’easter magazine, coordinated by Rhode Island Sea Grant for seven regional programs, was a popular publication for the public, for that decade.

College Designation1988

Under Monahan’s leadership, a full research portfolio was accomplished and full Sea Grant College status was achieved. A ceremony was held with fanfare in October 1988. UConn President John Casteen co-presided over the speechmaking, and a plaque was permanently installed on the seaside wall of the Branford House at Avery Point.

To celebrate, and take advantage of Ed’s international connections, research symposia were held in Germany, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. A formal collaboration with Ireland and Northern Ireland to share research and ideas was begun in 1991. Subsequent agreements included aquaculture efforts with Chile, and Mexico. Further research collaborations were formed with China, Germany and Israel. The first formal strategic plan was developed.

In the mid- ‘90s, a formal Sea Grant Intern Program was established with the Yale Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems. Before the program ended, more than 50 interns

carried on undergraduate research to benefit coastal ecosystems.

The Marine Advisory Program, led late in the ‘80s by Lance Stewart, continued under Extension Leader Norm Bender in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. That evolved into the present day CTSG Extension Program led by Nancy Balcom since 1994. The program, established by Congress, was based on marine extension as “field agents in hip boots” in waterfronts. Early agents like Tim Visel and Jim Wallace specialized in fisheries, shellfish and seafood. Later on water quality became a priority and Chet Arnold, followed by Heather Crawford, joined Extension. There were branch extension offices in Haddam and on the Yale University Campus.

Aquaculture and shellfish were always both a research and an extension priority. In 2000, Tessa Getchis was the first agent dedicated to aquaculture, and Anoushka

Concepcion followed in 2011. Invasive species, identified as a huge concern by Jim Carlton’s research in the late ’90s, are still a topic for both research and Extension today.

EPA Long Island Sound Study outreach (LISS)

Around 1988, the EPA LISS found that hypoxia (low DO) was a huge problem. LISS outreach became a formal collaboration between the EPA LISS and Connecticut and New York Sea Grant programs. The Connecticut LISS outreach coordinator position was first manned by Chet Arnold—later Kathy Rhodes followed by Nancy Balcom and Joe Blumberg— continues today with Judy Preston.

Making connections between land use and water quality also became imperative. Chet established the NEMO (Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials) program. He left Sea Grant to lead NEMO when it expanded to a national effort.

Close collaboration between NEMO, its spinoff CLEAR (Center for Land Use, Education, and Research), and CTSG continues today. Current staff Juliana Barrett and Mike Dietz are also NEMO and CLEAR team members. This partnership has brought geospatial technology relating to land use and water quality to many communities.

You’ve Got Mail!

Today we take instant communication for granted. But between 1991 and 1993, that was new to most people. The Internet emerged, offering a new kind of rapid communication to the public and academia. Earlier, communication was done by telephone and hard copy letters. UConn’s main campus at Storrs was quickly wired for Web, but regional campuses had no infrastructure for it. When Extension Leader Norm Bender complained that the rest of academia had the newfangled email and access to the World Wide Web, but UConn’s Avery Point campus and Sea Grant did not, dial-up AOL accounts were set up for staff. Around 1992, the campus was wired and Connecticut Sea Grant’s first web site was launched, even though HTML was a very foreign new language to staff. Fast forward to the program’s grant for a mobile smartphone app for creating rain gardens, developed by UConn CLEAR and NEMO in 2013!

The ‘90s also witnessed the establishment of a Sea Grant extension office at Yale University in New Haven.

A formal component with a staff position was added in 1992. The education office was located in The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. Val Cournoyer, Kim Racchio, Amy Haddow, and Diana Payne were education coordinators at various times. Today education is a formal program focus. Diana, originally

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based at The Maritime Aquarium, is full time in-house education coordinator at Avery Point now and is a national leader in marine literacy.

Another advance, in 1993, was the adoption nationwide of a new, consistent logo for all of the nation’s Sea Grant programs, creating a branding identity compatible with NOAA. Prior to that, each program had a distinct state logo; ours was a sperm whale inside an outline of the state. After a period of struggle remembered as “Logo Wars,” the final design developed by Alaska Sea Grant brought a uniform message and greater national identity to Sea Grant.

At the Special Olympics world summer events held in New Haven, Conn. in 1995, Director Monahan presented former Senator Lowell Weicker with a National Sea Grant Award. Weicker had championed Sea Grant for Connecticut.

Connecticut Sea Grant’s tenth anniversary was celebrated in 1998, coinciding with the International

Year of the Ocean. A gala dinner was held, along with many public educational events.

In October 1999, henceforth known by some staff as “The Year the Lobsters Died,” Connecticut Sea Grant began to get continuous urgent phone calls about dead lobsters and pesticides. The

program was not funding any lobster research. Within 24 hours of a written request, CTSG was able to fund preliminary research to help find the cause of the dieoff. In the following year, in collaboration with NY Sea Grant and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the program funded $7 million in lobster research in seven states. Research that went on for four years did not then show a direct connection between pesticide application for West Nile virus/mosquitoes and the lobster disease, but rather a number of complex environment changes happening, associated with warming waters.

A fabulous new home for the Sea Grant Office came about as a result of UConn 2000, a program to revitalize aging buildings and infrastructure. The old asbestos-laden brick bomb shelter building was demolished, and the modern three-story Marine Sciences Building that the program currently calls home was erected. The new lodging made collaborations much more appealing.

Wrack Lines magazine was launched in 2001 as CTSG’s face to the public. The magazine’s mission was, and is, to provide a potpourri of information to interest and educate in matters coastal

and marine with emphasis on the Long Island Sound region. A digital edition was added beginning with the next issue.

Sylvain De Guise, the current Connecticut Sea Grant director, came on board in 2006 after an intense national search. Like his predecessors, he was no stranger to research. Sylvain, who hails from Canada, is also associate professor in pathobiology and veterinary science at the University of Connecticut with interest in health of aquatic organisms, including sharks and marine mammals.

Under Sylvain’s leadership, the program became more geographically targeted to Long Island Sound, but also fostered new regional collaborative initiatives. Partnerships and leveraging resources became priority strategies. While retaining the traditional Sea Grant model of research, outreach and education the program developed a new mission statement: “To generate and provide science-based information to achieve healthy coastal and marine ecosystems, and consequent public benefits.”

Regional collaborations were codified with the formal MOU between

Northeast Sea Grant programs and representation on the NOAA North Atlantic Regional Team. Sylvain has served as chair of the Northeast Sea Grant Consortium, consisting of the

Sea Grant programs from Maine to New York, and led a greater New York Bight regional ocean science

planning initiative. He is chair-elect of the National Sea Grant

Association.

The Sea Grant Arts Award, begun in 2010, was the brainchild of Syma Ebbin,

“To generate and provide science-based information to achieve healthy coastal and marine ecosystems, and consequent public benefits.” Sylvan De Guise

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the program’s research coordinator. The annual funding award is open to artists of all genres including the visual arts, writing, theatre, dance, music, film and emerging genres.

Highlights of the past decade have also included international work on coral reef conservation and fisheries management by fisheries extension specialist Bob Pomeroy.

Today, Connecticut Sea Grant’s four primary focus areas are: • Healthy Coastal Ecosystems and Economy • Seafood Production and Consumption • Hazard Resilient Coastal Communities • Ocean and Coastal Literacy and Workforce Development

As Connecticut Sea Grant moves forward into an uncertain future, we see that some work begun in the early days is still bearing fruit now—for example the first seaweed farms in Long Island Sound; other work addresses new emerging problems such as adapting to extreme storms and climate change and the future of developed urban coast. One thing is certain: Sea Grant will continue to adapt to current needs as its list of partners and stakeholders continues to grow!

1st logo - 1984

2nd logo - 1988

present day logo

A SNAPSHOT OF1997 RESEARCH PROJECTS

• Crustacean reproduction (UConn)

• Nori farming for the Northeast (regional)

• Sea level rise and climate change (Wesleyan)

• Sea level rise and coastal processes (Conn College)

• Heavy metals in New Haven Harbor (Yale)

Former Sea Grant Director Ed Monahan presented former Senator Lowell Weicker with a national Sea Grant Award for his support at the Special Olympics event in New Haven 1995.

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Video Series Shows How to Start Growing SeaweedEver wonder what it would be like to grow seaweed? Connecticut Sea Grant has posted a six-part educational video playlist series on YouTube, to show people how to culture and grow four different species of economically important seaweeds. Part One, the introduction to the “Handbook for Seaweed Culture in New England” offers a broad overview of seaweeds and uses in New England. Other chapters describe how to set up a laboratory to culture seaweed, and seaweed nursery culture for native New England species of Kelp, Gracilaria, Chondrus, and Porphyra. The videos are close captioned for accessibility.

This project was funded through NOAA’s Sea Grant programs in Connecticut and New Hampshire. Research was conducted at the UConn Marine Biotechnology Laboratory in Stamford (Charles Yarish) and at the University of New Hampshire, Durham (Chris Neefus).

Link for the entire Seaweed Handbook playlist: http://s.uconn.edu/seaweedplaylist

Links to Individual Chapters:

Part 1 Introduction http://youtu.be/zQr-ZoYu1SEPart 2 Laboratory http://youtu.be/7Ay0NFSIOlgPart 3 Kelp http://youtu.be/y-k3eseEJFsPart 4 Gracilaria http://youtu.be/cd5jDPbz63gPart 5 Chondrus crispus http://youtu.be/AKEk6MQ9fHsPart 6 Porphyra http://youtu.be/RGUrPJs_Vj8

SaltmarshSparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus)

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by Milan G. Bull

This small, secretive sparrow is a denizen of our coastal salt marshes where it runs about among the reeds and grasses with the celerity of a mouse and only flies when close pressed.

The Saltmarsh Sparrow is nonterritorial and promiscuous, and only females provide parental care. The male’s short, soft, gasping song is given infrequently during the breeding season from May through August. After mating, the female constructs a cup-like nest of grass stems and blades, lined with finer grasses and sometimes built up on the sides to form a partial covering. The nest is attached to grass stems, six to fifteen centimeters above the ground. The female carries out all parental care, incubating the clutch of three to five eggs for 11 to 12 days, and subse-quently providing food for the chicks. The Saltmarsh Sparrow is one of the few bird species that has evolved to live only in salt marshes where it is found in salt-tolerant grasses such as cordgrass, blackgrass and saltmeadow grass in a narrow region along the Atlantic east coast from Maine to North Carolina in the warm months and south to Florida in the winter. This buffy, ochre-toned sparrow with orange cheeks has adapted to nesting in tidal grasses where it places its nest above the highest water level, or completes its nesting cycle between the monthly flood tides. It will often renest if the first attempt is flooded out.

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Although it will make short flights, the Saltmarsh Sparrow is most commonly encountered walking, running and hopping along the ground as it forages amongst the dense stands of saltmarsh vegetation for insects, spiders, marine invertebrates and seeds.

Due to its restricted habitat of salt marshes, this sparrow is highly sensi-tive to sea level rise resulting from climate change and may be the next bird species to disappear if the current rate of sea level rise continues and our coastal salt marshes are threatened.The Saltmarsh Sparrow is currently listed by the Connecticut Endangered Species Act as a Species of Special Concern. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List (IUCN) lists this sparrow as “Vulnerable.”

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Milan G. Bull is senior director of science and conservation for the Connecticut Audubon Society.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Vision for Connecticut Shellfish Resourcesby Tessa L. Getchis

Some say, “It’s about time!”

Others question, “Why now?”

Still others wonder, “Is this going to be another layer of regulation?”

Whatever the viewpoint, there is not a lack of opinions. In my line of work, that is not necessarily a problem. I work with a broad group of individuals ranging from shellfish industry members, regulators, town shellfish commissions…just to name a few! There are at least two commonalities among us all: enthusiasm and shellfish.

Who would argue against protect-ing this abundant natural resource we share with our friends, families, and neighbors? For those of us who eat love seafood - or any food for that matter - don’t we desire locally produced products that are grown or harvested by people we know and companies we trust?

My viewpoint is that people who have a stake in a shellfish business, or enjoy a day digging clams, or who ponder whether oyster reefs could serve as a means to protect our shore-line from storm damage, could stand

to benefit from a vision for our state’s shellfisheries and shellfish resources. I firmly believe that vision cannot (and should not) be developed without input from them all.

Beyond a vision – our ideal view of what our shellfisheries and shellfish resources will be in the future – we need a strategy to get there.

Shellfish aquaculture is an important industry in Connecticut. There are more than 40 companies based in our state that provide approximately 300 maritime jobs. Recreational shellfish harvest opportunities exist in most coastal towns, and between commercial and recreational harvest areas, shellfish grounds occupy nearly 80,000 acres of underwater land. This number doesn’t include natural populations of shellfish, commercial-ly valuable or not, that occupy vast tracts of sea bottom. While commer-cially cultivated shellfish beds thrive in Long Island Sound, a number of

organizations are interested in conserva-tion, as well as other potential ways to benefit from natural shellfish reefs or assemblages, ranging from things like habitat restoration to bioextraction (us-ing shellfish to remove excess nutrients from the water) to shoreline protection.

Both challenges and opportunities exist, but understanding the interests and concerns of the various stakeholders may be mutually beneficial. Engaging in an open dialogue could help to identify more common ground among individu-als, agencies, and institutions. Exposure to a variety of perspectives could bring about a broader and more comprehen-sive understanding of the economic, environmental, social issues with respect to shellfisheries and shellfish resources.

My organization, Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn Extension, is facilitating the development of a Shellfish Manage-ment Plan (SMP) that will identify a vision for the future of shellfish in

continued on next page

1 6 • W r a c k L i n e s : A C o n n e c t i c u t S e a G r a n t P u b l i c a t i o n

There are nearly 80,000 acres of underwater property dedicated for the purpose of farming or harvesting shellfish. Connecticut has a long, rich history and tradition of shellfish-ing and aquaculture dating back to the Colonial period.

continued on from previous page

Connecticut and the goals and strategies that will help us move forward. We have identified three focus areas: commercial, recreational, and natural shellfish resources.

Our role (always in the world of extension work) is to serve as a neutral party, and provide a forum that encourages open dialogue. We are relying on the support of our sister NOAA office, the National Marine Fisheries Service Milford Laboratory, as well as a committee comprised of leaders from industry, recreation, and natural resource interests, and regulatory and planning agencies to help guide our work.

As you read this story, we have wrapped up a series of initial scoping meetings to gather feedback from various stakeholders. On February 24, 2014 we invite you

to join us at our kickoff meeting to officially launch the Shellfish Management Plan initiative. This will be an opportunity to learn about and contribute to ‘all things’ shellfish in Connecticut. The meeting will be held at the Courtyard Marriott in Shelton, from 9 am to 6 pm.

I hope you voice your opinion because this is a chance to make your voice heard.

We all have a stake. We do not have a lack of people with a passion…for shellfish.

To learn more about this initiative, visit: http://smp.uconn.edu.

Tessa is an extension specialist with Connecticut Sea Grant and UConn Extension. She is one of four Connecticut Shellfish Management Plan task force members.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shellfish play a

critical role in the

marine ecosystem.

Filter-feeding shellfish

such as oysters, clams,

scallops, and mussels

can improve water

quality and clarity. Reef-

forming shellfish also

provide habitat essential

for a myriad of species,

and depending on size,

structure, and location,

may provide a buffer

against wave action

from coastal storms.

Fa l l / W i n t e r 2 0 1 3 - 1 4 • 1 7

I like that phrase for its paradoxical and brilliant insight into the nature of nature. But given our short attention spans and the radically longer time scales over which some types of change occur, many of us operate our daily lives under the comfortable assumption that we inhabit a space of static constancy. This notion of constancy seems to me related to John Steinbeck’s insight in the Grapes of Wrath, as recounted by my son who just

completed the novel, that the good times made them forget the bad times and the bad times made them forget the good times.

We go about our lives pretty much expecting a continuation of what went before. This approach usually works but occasionally needs reappraisal. Here along the Connecticut coast, we experience daily changes in the level of Long Island Sound; the tides come in

and go out, the sea level rises and falls. We expect this and plan our swimming, boating and clamming activities accordingly. Twice a day we see this cycle play itself out in the Sound, varying as the earth, moon and sun dance their way across the heavens. The sun and especially the moon exert gravitational forces on planet earth causing bulges of water to form on the rotating earth, creating tidal currents and changing sea levels. Other planetary

Riding the Rising Tide: Fathoming Our Changing Coast and FutureBy Syma A. Ebbin

“Change is the only constant” noted Heraclitus of Ephesus sometime around 500 B.C.E.

Syma A. Ebbin, Ph.D. is research coordinator for Connecticut Sea Grant and faculty member of the UConn Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

1 8 • W r a c k L i n e s : A C o n n e c t i c u t S e a G r a n t P u b l i c a t i o n

alignments and cycles, which we may be more or less aware of, overlay this diurnal one. Some like those that create spring and neap tides occur several times a year, others occur on longer time scales, such as the lunar nodal cycle which occurs on an 18.6 year rotation. Other factors too, such as storms and winds, and the shape of the land and seabed influence the rising and ebbing tides.

Here on the coast of Long Island Sound, to grasp the dynamics of our rising sea, we should consider also our recent geological history. Connecticut was covered by glaciers during the last ice age, reaching our state around 26,000 years ago. The south fork of Long Island was the southernmost extent of this glacial advance, which is marked as a terminal moraine, and the shoreline at this time was approximately 90 miles offshore from where it is today. Recessional moraines composed of rock and sediment marked the retreat and created a dam at the mouth of the nascent Sound, blocking the runoff of glacial melt-water that flowed from the disappearing glacier. Long Island Sound was first born a lake. Lake Connecticut formed when sea level was about 300 feet lower than it is today. The glacial milk flowing in deposited clay sediments creating a shallow-basined lake which ultimately broke through the sediment dam and drained to the Atlantic through the break at the Race between Fishers and Long Island Sounds. Once the heavy burden of ice was removed, the land began to rebound while at the same time, the sea level began to rise from the input of melting glacial waters. Eventually, both rebound and sea level rise slowed, fringing salt marshes formed, and about 3000 years ago the Sound we know today came into being.

According to the New London tide gauge, sea level has been rising at an average of 0.09 inches a year from 1938 to 2006, which represents an increase of about nine inches per century. Some scientists believe the slope of recent year increases in this

area is significantly higher than this long term average, ranging from 0.16 to 0.20 inches a year. These local area increases are greater than the global average of 0.07 inches a year calculated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The science needed to understand the dynamics driving rising sea levels and to predict where they may ultimately end up is complex and still emerging. Are you ready to dive into the (sea) weeds of the rising sea? First we need a bit of background on the dynamics of sea level fluctuations. There is a complex interplay among different factors affecting both land and sea involving changes in tectonic, hydrologic and atmospheric systems. On the land side we have forces which cause land to rise or sink such as the uplift that occurred after the retreat of glaciers. This is countered by subsidence or sinking of the land caused by the removal of minerals and groundwater and the compaction of soils. Tectonic forces change not only the land but the contours of ocean basins as well. The ocean is linked to the atmosphere, absorbing and storing much of the solar radiation which reaches earth as well as half of the carbon dioxide and methane. Our atmosphere is warming and that in turn has warmed the ocean and ultimately, increased the volume of ocean water, a phenomenon called thermal expansion. This warming has also increased the rate of melting and discharge of water from continental glaciers and ice sheets. There are two general methods for forecasting sea level rise. One involves empirical methods, based on the relationships among measured attributes such as temperature and sea level. The other employs process-based models developed through understanding the physical dynamics of the climate system. The most influential sea level rise forecasts are of the latter type: model-based scenarios produced by the IPCC. The 4th IPCC Assessment estimates took into account only the thermal

expansion of the ocean and did not consider the melting of glaciers and the Antarctic and Greenlandic ice sheets. The 5th Assessment includes these components. In either case, the melting of these ice sheets is the real “wild card” in estimating sea level rise since such a great volume of water is stored within them and little is known about the dynamics of this process.

With greenhouse gas emissions at 2000 levels (substantially lower than exist today), the IPCC’s 4th Assessment projected a sea level rise between seven and 23 inches by the end of the 21st century. However, the draft 5th Assessment released in August 2013 reworked the estimates to include projected changes in glacial melting. The new estimates range from 10 inches to slightly over three feet by the end of the century under a scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase as they have in recent years. A recent IPCC press release from September 27th quoted Co-Chair Qin Dahe as saying, “As the ocean warms, and glaciers and ice sheets reduce, global mean sea level will continue to rise, but at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past 40 years.” While the IPCC assessments provide the official best scientific estimate, alternate estimates of sea level rise by other researchers far exceed the upper ends of this range; others corroborate the lower estimates. On the higher end of sea level rise estimates is Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who has estimated increases in the range of six to ten feet in the next century. Another recently published study based on geological evidence from Australia indicates that sea levels may have risen 30 feet above the current height near the end of

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continued on next page

the Eemian epoch which preceded the most recent ice age, and most unsettlingly, that approximately 17 feet of this increase occurred in a geological instant — less than one thousand years.

So what do we know about what may happen in Connecticut? Estimation becomes even less reliable and more variable the closer to home we get. The more geographical and temporal specificity we demand, the less reliable the resulting estimates. Complicating this forecast is the fact that Connecticut’s phase of glacial rebound is ending and the state is now sinking slightly at about 0.03 - 0.035 inches per year. Sea level does not rise at the same rate everywhere, and local projections of sea level rise in Connecticut have forecast increases on the high end of IPCC projections. A 2004 projection made by Environmental Defense researchers put increases in the range of nine to 35 inches by 2080. More recent research from the U.S. Geological Service has identified a “hotspot” of accelerated sea level rise, potentially three to four times higher than the global rate of increase, extending from Cape Hatteras north over 600 miles along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. and encompassing this region. These spatial variations result from dynamic processes driven by circulation and variations in temperature and salinity (which determine seawater density and therefore its volume) as well as forces associated with Earth’s rotation, shape and changing gravity.

However, even these more regionalized estimates of sea level

rise won’t tell us much about the on-the-shore dynamics we may experience in Long Island Sound. The Sound is not just a big enamel bathtub filling up with seawater. We need to consider the relationship between that rising sea and the shoreline, the shape and composition of the shore, its susceptibility to erosion, local differences in land elevation, the quantity and rate of sediment inputs (accretion) and outputs (erosion). On shorelines composed of loose sediments such as sand, changes in the shape of the coast will be determined not just by higher high tides, but also by the powerful impacts of waves and storms shifting

those sediments into new shapes. Although models exist to predict shoreline retreat, the complexity of processes and interactions on the shore make these predictions quite unreliable.

To really understand what the interface between the marine and terrestrial spheres will look like, we also need to understand the nature of human development in the coastal zone. Connecticut is the fourth most densely settled state in the nation. Forty percent of the state’s population lives in 36 coastal municipalities and over 95% live within 50 miles of Long Island Sound. Beaches, dunes and tidal marshes may be able to migrate inland if topography permits, but in areas we have developed, where

we have built retaining walls, houses, restaurants and roads, this migration may be unable to occur. We have already compromised or destroyed many of these naturally buffering systems and more may be lost as sea levels rise, eliminating their capacity to buffer storm surges, mitigate coastal flooding and provide essential habitat to a suite of coastal species, some of which, like the piping plover which nests on Bluff Point, are already endangered. Coastal wetlands act as “horizontal levees” and, according to ecological economist Bob Costanza and his colleagues, 2.5 acres of this habitat in Connecticut prevents approximately $28,500

in storm damage on an annual basis, allowing us to avoid $23 billion in damages each year on the northeast and gulf coasts combined.

Finally, the role of high energy events must also be considered in this equation. Warm water is the “fuel” that drives hurricanes, and with warming

waters it is predicted that there may be an increase in intense tropical hurricane activity in the North Atlantic, including Connecticut. Certainly, we have experienced a wave of extreme weather events in the past few years: an extreme 100 (+) year flooding event in March 2010, Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, followed closely by the freakishly early Winter Storm Alfred in October 2011 and more recently, Superstorm Sandy last October, which entered some areas with a storm surge of 13 feet above mean sea level. Researchers have predicted that a 100-year storm event will occur more frequently in the future, recurring every three to 50 years by 2100 in the

The upward trend in sea level rise is 0.09 inches/year based on monthly mean data from 1938 to 2006; however, the rate is higher in most recent years. Source: NOAA

New London Tide Gauge

2 0 • W r a c k L i n e s : A C o n n e c t i c u t S e a G r a n t P u b l i c a t i o n

New London area, depending on the emission scenario used in the model. Intense hurricanes lead to impressive beach erosion, but even lower intensity, but more frequent, winter storms can have significant impacts; both types of events may cause substantial property damage in coastal areas.

For folks who are charged with planning for the future in our coastal communities, such as Groton, this range of forecasts and lack of consensus on how high the tide will ultimately rise is a problem. However, using plausible future scenarios can be a useful aid to planning and making decisions regarding the development and protection of coastal areas. There are two programs that have been developed to visualize potential impacts on local areas. The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Resilience Tool is one such program and can be accessed at: http://coastalresilience.org/. The CT DEEP and University

of Connecticut Coastal Hazards Portal and Visualization Tool (http://coastalhazards.uconn.edu/visualizationtool/) is another means of visualizing potential impacts associated with different sea level rise scenarios.

This summer, my family and I went to see Shakespeare’s “As you Like It” at the Connecticut College Arboretum. This play abounds in clever aphorisms; many highlight the paradoxical and interwoven nature of seemingly opposite concepts. One of my favorites was “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” I think Shakespeare was commenting on the foolishness of believing in the certainty and breadth of knowledge and the wisdom of recognizing its tenuousness and imperfection. Thus, it is with humility and an open mind that we should move forward into our changing

world. We may not know exactly how high our seas will rise as a result of a warming climate and we may know even less about how our shorelines will retreat, but because many areas of our coast are already experiencing erosion and repeated damage to homes and infrastructure from storms, we must plan for the future, no matter how uncertain, and adapt to a present that seems now to be diverging from the past. It may be that in order to live in the good times (à la Steinbeck) we may need to remember the bad and indeed, act upon the knowledge embedded within experience and the lessons learned during those times. We might take heed of Lao Tzu’s admonition “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading” and decide to change course. We may not be able to stop the rising tide given the changes we’ve set in motion, but by planning for a range of conceivable futures and taking steps to meet the challenges ahead, we may be able to ride the crest of that tide and land our boat on a different shore.

Fa l l / W i n t e r 2 0 1 3 - 1 4 • 2 1

Nine new rain gardens were completed in the Town of

Southington this past summer, redirecting water from the street into the ground. In October, a class of 26 students completed Coastal Certification training through UConn’s Master Gardener program in Haddam. A Coastal Riparian Planting Tool was recently released to provide Long Island Sound property owners with sustainable native planting guidance for coastal living. Across the border, the City of New York committed $3 million to the creation of a Science and Resilience Institute to promote “an understanding of resilience in urban ecosystems and their adjacent communities.”

Around the country - and the world for that matter - communities are adopting new and innovative approaches to stormwater management by re-introducing natural (green) systems, into our surroundings. Forward thinking managers are also adopting similar coastal applications. Infrastructure consists of the physical framework that supports our society. Green infrastructure (GI) is the use of vegetation, often complemented by other bio-engineering products, to serve as functional parts of our human environment. A rain garden is a GI application. The plants, soil, and the shallow basins that define rain gardens are all functional components of this application.

They capture rainfall runoff (from downspouts, parking lots, etc.), filter it as it passes through roots and soil, and ultimately replenish groundwater. Sometimes rain gardens are directly connected to storm sewer pipes by way of underdrains. This direct connection of downspout to rain garden and garden to storm sewer pipe is a direct example of GI.

We have, and will continue to have, the need for “gray” infrastructure - the pipes flowing from street to treatment plants, the rocks used to temporarily “stabilize” shorelines and bridge abutments, the breakwaters that temper the ocean’s energy. The engineering community, however,is increasingly borrowing from the principles and strategies employed by biologists, ecologists and landscape architects.

Implementation of GI approaches is getting increased attention with the growing awareness of climate change. Such stormwater applications, especially over the last ten years, have primarily concentrated on improving water quality and reducing the volume of sewer outfall discharge into our creeks and rivers. More recently, the bio-engineering focus has captured the attention of coastal communities in direct response to the acceleration of sea level rise and the increased severity of storm events. Past issues of Wrack Lines and numerous other scientific publications have discussed how environmental changes are

Strengthening Coastal Resilience through Green Infrastructure

continued on page 22

Dune Protection on Rockaway Penninsula

Credit: NOAAby Antonio F. Federici

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Living Shoreline (hybrid) installation in 2009.

Cordgrass plugs (planted by volunteers) inside a rock sill with goose

exclusion fence installed on the upland side to

prevent predation during plant establishment.

Yellow arrows point to designed inlets, which

allow daily tidal flooding of this low marsh area.

The same location in October 2013.

The site has matured and as with any

well-executed bio-engineering

project, it is unclear where the work

starts or ends. The installation blends

in naturally with the environment.

Strengthening Coastal Resilience continued from page 21

2 2 • W r a c k L i n e s : A C o n n e c t i c u t S e a G r a n t P u b l i c a t i o n

The future of coastal living is going to be a lesson in adaptation.

To learn more about ways you can participate in change, please visit the followingresource websites:

· Registration for the next Coastal Certification program www.ctmga. org/#/coastal-certificate/4572679798

· Coastal Riparian Planting Tool http://clear.uconn.edu/crlg/index.html

· Connecticut House Democrats’ Shoreline Preservation Task Force www. housedems.ct.gov/Shore/index.asp

· Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Reduce Runoff website http:// reducerunoff.org/index.htm

· “Living Shorelines” brochure www.cbf.org/Document.Doc?id=60

· “plaNYC, A Stronger More Resilient New York” www.nyc.gov/html/sirr/ html/report/report.shtml

Fa l l / W i n t e r 2 0 1 3 - 1 4 • 2 3

linked to accelerated climate change that result from greenhouse gas emissions. Understanding how buffering elements of the natural world can be integrated into our human system will greatly increase our ability to adapt to the future.

Manmade dunes may be considered GI. These buffers received press attention in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, especially as they were found to have protected some shoreline communities in New Jersey and New York. In the spring issue of Land and Water magazine, Landscape Architect and Ecologist, William Young described how Bradley Beach, New Jersey proactively built dunes along the coast in the 1990s using snow fencing and discarded Christmas trees. Damage to this community was significantly reduced compared to neighboring towns that did not feature dune structures. Similarly, portions of New York’s Rockaway peninsula benefited from dune buffers. The image on page 12, borrowed from the “plaNYC A Stronger More Resilient New York” (New York City Department of Environmental Protection, 2013) provides an excellent visual example of the difference a dune can make.

According to experts, dunes alone will not solve all of our problems. Changing policy regarding where and how we build is part of the bigger picture of moving forward successfully. Many coastal areas, for example, can be supported by shifting away from standard hard-armoring approaches to shoreline erosion. Hard-armoring one site can concentrate erosive forces at a neighboring site. The Living Shorelines Program developed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation defines a practical range of tools specifically suited for areas of “low-to-moderate wave energy and minimal erosion” (Living Shorelines, www.cbf.org). The program guidelines provide quantified ranges of water depth, annual erosion rate, and fetch (“the distance traversed by waves without obstruction” as defined by Merriam-Webster) for categorical application from nonstructural, hybrid, and structural applications. Structural examples include more traditional strategies such as rock revetment or offshore breakwaters. Nonstructural approaches include grass plantings, often utilizing cordgrass/salt hay species (Spartina spp.) in combination with coir log edging/support. An example of a hybrid Living Shoreline installed with volunteer help (notably the author’s

mother-in-law) in Galesville, Maryland, is exhibited in the photos on previous page.

It is important to keep in mind that our shorelines are dynamic systems. This was aptly described in Spring/Summer 2013 Wrack Lines article, “Shifting Sands, the Story of Griswold Point.” Aside from the geologic aspects of sediment starvation from diminished river deposition (largely due to historical dam installations) and subsidence in some locations, our ocean water is moving inland. Marshes are degrading and also migrating landward, and they will continue to do so until they are impeded by geologic or manmade features (e.g., roadways).

The future of coastal living is going to be a lesson in adaptation. Each of us has the ability to play a role in reducing the severity of climate

change by reducing our carbon footprint. At the Urban Resilience in an Era of Climate Change conference in Brooklyn, New York, Bruce Stein from the National Wildlife Federation explained that “climate-smart conservation” needs to act with intention, understand vulnerability, and account for risk. By way of scripting this article, this author hopes to participate in the conversation.

Strengthening Coastal Resilience continued from page 22 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Antonio F. Federici, PWS

is a senior wetland scientist

with Dewberry Engineers Inc.

located in New Haven, CT.

NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDSTORRS, CT

PERMIT NO. 3

University of Connecticut Connecticut Sea Grant1080 Shennecossett RoadGroton, CT 06340

www.seagrant .uconn.edu