Photo: National Park Service
CHATHAM Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The effects of eroison are on full display at the Monomoy Refuge in Chatham. So much so that the popular visitor center at the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge had to be abandoned due to the rapidly changing coastline, accelerated thanks to the ongoing effects of climate change. The visitor center had stood along the coastline for many years but is now being torn down.
Rick Nye, the refuge center’s manager, said that a barrier island that was protecting the visitor center’s bluff from the Atlantic Ocean had eroded away.
Nye, along with the staff at the center are also worried about the many species of wildlife who have made their homes along the shores of the refuge too.
“It’s critical habitat for some shore birds and piping plovers,” Nye said.
“Prior to 2018, the rate of erosion on our bluff was about two feet a year, and in 2019 it jumped to fifteen feet, and then since 2020, it’s been around 30 feet a year,” Nye also said.
Nye added that the rate of erosion is so severe that [he and his team] could not stay and they had to close the National Weather Service center on the property and most recently, the refuge. Now the next task is to find a new home for the center, but maintaining the parts of the refuge that still stand is a bigger priority.
“We still have a 7,921-acre wildlife refuge and wilderness area to take care of, so work just focuses on that [for now].”
WBZ NewsRadio's Nichole Davis (NicholeDWBZ) reports.
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