Recent raging winter storms have caved in streets, wrecked piers, collapsed homes and apartment buildings, and submerged property up and down California’s coastline.Now, as sea levels continue to rise from climate change, scientists are working on a real-world experiment that could help reduce the impacts.At a 247-acre property near the Santa Cruz-Monterey county line, crews are planning to protect against flooding — not by trying to hold back the ocean by building bigger sea walls — but by converting flood-prone farmland into tidal wetlands. During big storms and high tides, this allows ocean waters to move inland in an orderly way instead of threatening homes and other property.In other words, working with nature, as opposed to trying to battle the ocean’s relentless forward march.“It’s a demonstration,” said Sarah Newkirk, executive director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, which is overseeing the project. “What we are doing here is applicable to other places in California, the Gulf of Mexico, and other parts of the country.”On Wednesday, Newkirk’s non-profit environmental group closed a $13.4 million deal to buy the property, known as Beach Ranch. The bucolic farmland sits at the mouth of the Pajaro River near the crashing waves of Monterey Bay, and has flooded multiple of times over the past few generations, most recently this January, and during the previous winter.Read More
