ECOLOGY OF BUZZARDS BAY: An Estuanne Profile 129 



regulations outside of major pollution events. As nu- 

 trient-related water quality degradation is becom- 

 ing increasingly apparent in the smaller harbors and 

 embayments of the bay, sound environmental man- 

 agement policies must be implemented that allow 

 for the intelligent use of these areas while ensuring 

 their protection. 



7.4. Relative Sea-level 

 Rise 



Although ample scientific evidence exists to sup- 

 port the contention that relative sea level is rising 

 along the Buzzards Bay shoreline (Figs. 6.5 and 

 6.8), few management strategies are in place to deal 

 with the resulting changes that will ultimately occur 

 along the bay's coast. The desirability of waterfront 

 property has led to significant development along 

 the water's edge, in some cases fortified by sea- 

 walls or revetments to protect these properties from 

 storm or erosional damage. Although these con- 

 structions provide some protection against storm 

 related wave activity, they cannot provide long-tenn 

 protection against rising sea levels. 



New approaches are being considered to re- 

 strict or lessen new development along barrier 

 beaches; however recent court cases (i.e., Lucas 

 vs. South Carolina Coastal Council, U.S. Su- 

 preme Court, July 1 992) have called into question 

 the right of regulatory boards and agencies to re- 

 strict economically productive uses of properties 

 without compensatory payment. Other ongoing 

 cases involve the right (or lack thereof) of land- 

 owners to protect their property under emergency 

 situations, which frequently involve construction of 

 hard structures currently restricted or prohibited by 

 state or local law. Currently, new construction of 

 seawalls, revetments, and the like is generally pro- 

 hibited from coastal dunes but can be permitted on 

 coastal banks around Buzzards Bay. Unfortunately, 

 since many of these hard structures were estab- 

 lished before current restrictions were put in place, 

 much of the regulation regards repair and replace- 

 ment and is often on a case-by-case basis, fre- 

 quently under emergency situations as the result of 



major coastal storms. Because there are often sub- 

 stantial financial incentives, many of these cases are 

 carried through the various levels of the legal sys- 

 tem, being financially difficult for local or regional 

 governmental boards and agencies to pursue. In light 

 of several severe storms that have hit Buzzards Bay 

 over the past two decades, however, the problem 

 has been made at least temporarily apparent, and 

 increased efforts have been made to educate cur- 

 rent and prospective owners of waterfront prop- 

 erty about the short- and long-tenn risks of living 

 directly on the water. 



Much of the attention given to the problems of 

 waterfront development is focused on building that 

 occurs directly on coastal dunes or banks; how- 

 ever, a significant amount of development also oc- 

 curs along the wetlands found behind barrier 

 beaches. With rising sea level, barrier beaches natu- 

 rally migrate landward as do the wetlands behind 

 them (Fig. 6. 1 0). Many of the marsh-front devel- 

 opments have hard structures for protection against 

 major storms, in essence preventing the landward 

 migration of the wetland overtime. Increased rec- 

 ognition of the importance of intertidal wetlands to 

 coastal ecology has resulted in more attention to 

 extending buffer zones and developing new ap- 

 proaches to management that take into account the 

 long-term need for wetlands to migrate landward. 



Building seawalls and armoring the coast in the 

 face of a continually rising bay and periodic storm 

 events may provide a temporary local solution to 

 land loss by erosion and flooding. Nevertheless over 

 the long term the Buzzards Bay watershed will di- 

 minish in size, and the salt marshes, barrier dunes, 

 and beaches will continue the retreat that they be- 

 gan shortly after Buzzards Bay first became an es- 

 tuary. 



Buzzards Bay and its watershed have been con- 

 tinually changing since their formation 1 6,000 years 

 ago, but the rate of alteration has been accelerating 

 since the colonial era. Human activities have been 

 readily apparent in their effects on terrestrial sys- 

 tems with the original forests being cut for lumber 

 and cleared for agricultural fields, which are now 

 reverting to forest or being developed for residential 



