Word: protection
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...almost completely developed and that tourism is just too valuable an income source. Indeed, unless it is voluntary, any restriction of land use, even for good environmental reasons, must respect , property rights. Two recent Supreme Court decisions served as timely reminders that local governments have a constitutional responsibility to protect property owners. Even so, those who resist a balanced policy of coastal management, whether they are motivated by greed or by genuine concern for the well-being of coastal communities, will probably lose in the end -- to the sea. Says Coastal Geologist Griggs: "In the long run, everything...
...from septic systems, the drainage weakens the land itself. On the East and Gulf coasts, the major problem is destruction of beaches and sand dunes that normally check the ocean's force. Of particular concern are the 295 barrier islands -- strips of sand dune, marsh and sometimes forest -- that protect most of the U.S. coast from Maine to Texas. Not surprisingly, they are considered prime development spots: Atlantic City, N.J., Virginia Beach, Va., and Hilton Head, S.C., among others, were all built on barrier islands...
...canals and pipeline rights-of-way dredged by oil and gas companies. Ordinarily, much of the salty water would be forced out of marsh areas by seasonal freshwater overflows from the nearby Mississippi. But the river now rarely floods, thanks to massive levees built along its banks to protect riverside land. The combination of saltwater intrusion and freshwater cutoff, says Houck, leaves the wetlands "caught in a double whammy. You couldn't do a better job of screwing up Louisiana if you planned it."Wilma Dusenberry, a Chauvin, La., restaurant owner, reflects the fears of many who depend...
...solutions to erosion. On Galveston Bay, desperate ranchers have positioned junked cars on the shore to prevent the waters from washing away roads. Conservation officers are planting dense patches of cordgrass just offshore in an effort to buffer the bay's clay banks from the relentlessly lapping waters. To protect the transplants until they take hold, conservationists have jury-rigged a protective barrier of old Air Force parachutes in the water to absorb and attenuate the force of the waves. Harry Cook, a Texas shrimper, is considering wire mesh and old tires to keep the bay waters from chewing away...
There are more substantive approaches to beach protection. When properly designed and built, they can slow beach erosion. Nonetheless, most are ineffective in the long run and can actually exacerbate damage. A seawall, for example, may protect threatened property behind it, but it often hastens the retreat of the beach in front as waves dash against the wall and scour away sand. Louis Sodano, mayor of Monmouth Beach, N.J., knows the process firsthand. "When I moved here 28 years ago, you could walk the whole beach," he remembers. "Now the waves slap against the wall. We've lost...