Working to protect and promote the Nisqually Watershed for current and future generations

NY Times Green blog: As a River Warms, Hope Beckons

The recent New York Times article on global warming and the Nisqually watershed was followed up by with a blog post on the Times’ Green blog:

In my article in Thursday’s Times about the future of the Nisqually watershed in Washington State, I mention efforts by conservation groups and land trusts across the country to buy up land parcels that are expected to turn into valuable ecological assets someday — marshes or swamplands, for example — as the sea rolls further inland because of global warming.

However, conservation is not accomplished just by purchasing land. Take, for example, the hope for the eventual conversion of farmland behind the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.

Climate scientists suggest that the world’s oceans could rise as much as three feet over the next century as icebergs melt and the seas warm and expand in volume. The Pacific Northwest office of Ducks Unlimited, an environmental group, has done quite a bit of work with computer modeling to figure out what this could mean for wetlands across the region.

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