Proposed Solutions

 With all this happening to Tangier Island, its locals are asking what can be done to save their beloved home land. While the outlook is bleak, there are avenues to be taken that could either mitigate the damage and kick the can further down the road, or possibly save it completely if the cards fall right. There have been attempts to solve the issue in the past, but nothing that has been done will do anything more than just delay the inevitable.

Possible suggestions for solutions include a sea wall, which has already been tried to some degree of success, as a 5,700 foot in length sea wall was built in 1990 by the Army Corps of Engineers1. However, this sea wall has done nothing more than temporarily halt the unrelenting march of H2O that will engulf the islands sooner or later. Furthermore, the seawalls were built mainly with erosion in mind, as the island dwellers were not particularly concerned with climate change when the wall was built2. 

Crabbing pots and clams on Tangier Island. Image by Chris Gabel, used with his permission

   One of the more promising solutions to this major issue was proposed in 2013 by scientists David Schulte, Kain Dridge and Mark Hudges3. It is a very similar solution to a sea wall, but takes it a step further. Instead of just constructing walls around the island to slow down the erosion, scientists propose a segmented breakwater system. Segmented breakwater systems are series of breakwaters strategically placed to create a system of breakwaters that act together to protect coastal communities from issues that the ocean commonly gives them, such as high tides, flooding, and rising sea levels. 

In Tangier’s case, these breakwater systems would be placed farther offshore then a normal breakwater system to allow for the construction of sand dunes which would act as man made beaches4. This system of man made beaches would catch sediment blown in from the wind and add inorganic sediment to Tangier due to wind during storms. This breakwater/dune system would begin along Tangier’s eastern shore and make its way up around the Northern part and end near the middle of the western shore5.

One thing this proposed solution accomplishes is adding up to 2 to 3 meters to five former ridges on the Uppards which used to be upland ridges6. Woody vegetation such as loblolly pines could supply the ridges and the main island with organic materials. This vegetation would also help the ridges to remain at the new elevation, as well as be a home to seabirds who could make nests on the pines7. 

Spray dredging the parts of the island with no vegetation could help to keep the elevation stable. The scientists suggest that the wetland’s soil be fertilized to help grow the amount of organic material in the areas where spray dredging is not possible8. 

While this solution has lots of upside, it does not come cheap. It is estimated that the construction of the breakwater system and beaches alone would be around 20-30 million dollars9. This is a very costly project, and funding would almost certainly have to come out of the Virginia State or Federal budget. There is no guarantee that either of those governing bodies would want to sacrifice such an amount for a small town of only 400 some inhabitants, so the authorities would need to be convinced. This begs the very difficult question: is Tangier worth saving?

  1. Tangier Town, Tangier Planning Commission, “Tangier Town Plan”, page 5, 1996, Tangier, Virginia http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CZIC-ht168-v8-t36-1996/html/CZIC-ht168-v8-t36-1996.htm, accessed December 3, 2024 http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/ poverty02/pov02hi.html.  ↩︎
  2. Planning Commission, “Tangier Town Plan”, page 5 ↩︎
  3. David Schulte, Karin Dridge, and Mark Hudgins, “Climate Change and the Evolution and Fate of the Tangier Islands of Chesapeake Bay, USA.” Nature.com, December 10, 2015. Accessed December 3, 2024, https://www.nature.com/articles/srep17890#citeas. ↩︎
  4. Schulte, Dridge, Hudgins, “Climate Change and the Evolution and Fate of the Tangier Islands of Chesapeake Bay, USA.” ↩︎
  5. Schulte, Dridge, Hudgins, “Climate Change and the Evolution and Fate of the Tangier Islands of Chesapeake Bay, USA.” ↩︎
  6. Schulte, Dridge, Hudgins, “Climate Change and the Evolution and Fate of the Tangier Islands of Chesapeake Bay, USA.” ↩︎
  7. Schulte, Dridge, Hudgins, “Climate Change and the Evolution and Fate of the Tangier Islands of Chesapeake Bay, USA.” ↩︎
  8. Schulte, Dridge, Hudgins, “Climate Change and the Evolution and Fate of the Tangier Islands of Chesapeake Bay, USA.” ↩︎
  9. Schulte, Dridge, Hudgins, “Climate Change and the Evolution and Fate of the Tangier Islands of Chesapeake Bay, USA.” ↩︎