David Rosane Talks About Urban Conservation

Wherever coastal environments are destroyed, coastal cities are at risk. Take New York. 80% of its original rim of protective salt marshes has been lost to landfill, development, erosion. Worrisome? Tropical storms are not foreign to the North East. There have been at least 9 close calls in the past six decades. In the past ten years, say MIT experts, they have increased in power by 50%, due to ever-warmer tropical seas. According to the National Hurricane Center, New York is a "high-risk" area, due to location and population density. In the event of a major hurricane, the storm tide would be 20 feet or more. Entire areas of Brooklyn, Queens and lower Manhattan would be under water.

Would New York's salt marshes still protect us? A few acres of coastal swamp can shave up to a foot off of an incoming wave and absorb up to 50% of its energy. Moreover, salt marshes can be restored, as the City's Park department scientists have recently demonstrated in the remaining coastal wilderness of Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Salt marshes have more than one life-saving property. They are home to countless herons, egrets, crabs, clams and aquatic organisms that together constitute the most productive food web on the planet. In sheer biomass production, they outrank tropical rainforests. They are invaluable nurseries for pelagic fish. They support our economy. They help regulate our climate. They have defined our culture since the Lenape Indians and the Dutch. More than just a source of livelihood, they are a source of knowledge and awareness that all New Yorkers can share.



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