How the Parks of Tomorrow will be Different?

America’s most special places will always be beautiful, but a warming climate forces us to accept that they can’t be frozen in time.

Assateague Island National Seashore, which sits on a 37-mile-long sliver of land just off the coast of Maryland and Virginia, is gradually shuffling westwards 1. Hurricanes and Northeasters have driven sand from the beaches across island into the bayside marshes. The entire island is shifting closer to the coast.

Scientists expect that as the climate changes, the storms will likely strengthen, sea levels will keep rising, and Assateague’s slow westward migration may accelerate1. The staff at the National Park is preparing for these changes. The storms have destroyed the parking lots 6 times in 10 years. The park’s crew worked to adapt to the storms and created toilets, showers and beach shelters that could be moved quickly.

These adaptations, however did not take into account Climate Change. The seashore is one of the first national parks in the country to explicitly address and accept, the effects of climate change. The park will try to adjust to the changes, rather than fighting them. It will continue to move as the island moves, shifting its structures with the sands.

One thought on “How the Parks of Tomorrow will be Different?

  1. This post actually opened my eyes about the effect of changing weather conditions and weather pattern. As its really important to realise the changes in the world which, is because of the changes in climate conditions. Because of human intervention and influence to climate change our surroundings and areas around earth are changing and trying to adapt to this changes. Therefore, we can say that we are actually influencing the natural process of the world and hindering the cycle which is to be held resposible for the devastation we see around us.

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