Citation:

Yee, S., E. Eisenhauer, AND R. Kashuba. Crisfield Natural Spaces Discussions. Crisfield Natural Spaces Discussions, Crisfield, MD, April 20, 2024.

Impact/Purpose:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discussions with residents of Crisfield and the surrounding area will help EPA to learn how residents in the Crisfield area use and feel about Crisfield’s natural coastal spaces. The discussions are part of a research effort to identify the potential impacts and benefits of nature-based strategies on the Crisfield community, such as marsh restoration, living shorelines, seagrass restoration, sand dune restoration, oyster reefs and artificial reefs. Community feedback from small groups discussions will be used to inform ORD solutions driven research to 1) identify nature-based strategies to improve long-term flood resilience in Crisfield, 2) model flood mitigation by nature-based strategies, 3) identify and prioritize ecosystem services and natural resource benefits of primary concern to Crisfield, 4) and model the potential ecosystem services co-benefits of nature-based strategies. 

Description:

EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) is partnering with a community in the Chesapeake Bay region, Crisfield, Maryland, to co-develop research addressing climate-related flooding and erosion issues incorporating natural infrastructure comprised of coastal resources such as salt marshes and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). Such blue carbon resources not only attenuate wave energy and provide shoreline stability to help decrease coastal flooding and erosion but also create habitat, improve water quality, provide recreational and tourism opportunities, and sequester carbon. This project will directly engage with the community to better understand their challenges and short- and long-term goals and work together on developing methodologies to better inform their decision-making around the use of blue carbon natural infrastructure for coastal protection and associated co-benefits such as restoring habitat for economically important living resources, enhancing natural-resource-based tourism, and generally focusing on improving community health and wellbeing. The goal of these small group discussions is to better understand relationships between the people of Crisfield and Crisfield’s natural spaces and coastal environment, including what natural ecosystems are important to the Crisfield community, how have they changed over time, how do the people of Crisfield use these ecosystems, what specific characteristics of these ecosystems does the community care about, or what impacts might nature-based solutions have on the community. This information will help ORD and the community identify and evaluate potential ‘nature-based’ strategies, such as marsh restoration or living shorelines or artificial reefs, that could be considered to address long-term flooding issues, and communicate the potential broader impacts or co-benefits of ‘nature-based’ strategies, such as recreational and fishing opportunities, to the Crisfield community.

Record Details: