Key Takeaways From Coastal Flooding Report On Martha’s Vineyard And Nantucket

Boats docked at Dutcher Dock in Menemsha, Mass. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Roughly 900 structures on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket may experience daily flooding from tides in 2050.

That’s one of the key takeaways from a new report from the nonprofit Trustees of Reservations, which asked a consultant a few years ago to look at erosion and flood risk at their coastal properties.

The Trustees is — somewhat surprisingly — the largest private coastal landowner in Massachusetts, and their properties had been experiencing unprecedented flooding due to climate change. The organization wanted to see what was ahead.

The consultant’s report was eye-opening, said Tom O’Shea, managing director of resources and planning for the Trustees, showing many of their properties at risk.

“This is really a major issue not only for the Trustees, but for coastal communities in Massachusetts,” he said. “As an organization that’s part of 25 different coastal communities, we thought this was an important time for us to really help lead, and be a voice on coastal resilience.”

The group started to take a more active role in analyzing the effects of climate change on the Massachusetts coast and investigating possible solutions.

One of their most visible efforts came in 2020 with their first “State of the Coast” report, focusing on the North Shore; it continues with the release of their new report on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, which have some of the highest erosion rates in the state. The islands “are the ones that could be leaders in showing the rest of us how to cope with coastal change,” O’Shea said, “because they’re the ones who have to deal with it.”

Click here for the full story and list of takeaways from WBUR.