Image: Jane Thomas, Integrated Application Network, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, 2016
We talk about farmland lost to development all the time - (175 acres per hour in the US). While development pressures are the biggest factor in Maryland farm loss, climate change and rising sea levels are bringing more salt into the low lying fields of the Eastern Shore, rendering fields un-useable. More interaction between farm fields and higher tides also means more runoff into streams and the Bay.
Like all the effects of climate change, there are ways our inventive species is trying to adapt. New salt tolerant crops (quinoa anyone?), and creating easements to protect the new marshland that was once farmland.
Two great reads to help get a handle on the crisis -
"Coastal farmers in Maryland and across Mid-Atlantic being driven off their land as salt poisons the soil" - Baltimore Sun
A fascinating interactive map and photo essay showing the impact of salt water on the Eastern Shore's Fields and Forests - "Our Changing Chesapeake"
Like all the effects of climate change, there are ways our inventive species is trying to adapt. New salt tolerant crops (quinoa anyone?), and creating easements to protect the new marshland that was once farmland.
Two great reads to help get a handle on the crisis -
"Coastal farmers in Maryland and across Mid-Atlantic being driven off their land as salt poisons the soil" - Baltimore Sun
A fascinating interactive map and photo essay showing the impact of salt water on the Eastern Shore's Fields and Forests - "Our Changing Chesapeake"
