{"id":285,"date":"2017-12-21T16:46:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T16:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.usatodaynetwork.com\/risingseas\/?page_id=285"},"modified":"2018-08-21T18:46:24","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T18:46:24","slug":"historic-preservation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/stories.usatodaynetwork.com\/risingseas\/historic-preservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic preservation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Coastal waters threaten Florida\u2019s historic resources<\/h1>\n

By Dinah Voyles Pulver<\/strong>, dinah.pulver@news-jrnl.com
\n<\/em>Dale White,<\/strong> dale.white@heraldtribune.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Published\u00a0Dec 21,\u00a02017<\/div>\n

T<\/span>he Castillo de San Marcos withstood two sieges in 330 years and changed hands five times, but its latest invader \u2014 the rising Atlantic Ocean \u2014 threatens to erode the historic St. Augustine fortress. The coquina shell walls of the oldest masonry fort in the United States once absorbed cannonballs but will be susceptible to the buffetings of the sea.<\/p>\n

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A tour boat passes the Castillo de San Marcos on in November. The Spanish fort in St. Augustine has stood for more than three centuries and once absorbed cannonballs, but rising sea levels could be its destruction. (Christina Kelso \/ The St. Augustine Record)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the other side of the state, Egmont Key was named one of the state\u2019s 11 most endangered places this year by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation because rising seas threaten to submerge the island. Just outside Tampa Bay in the Gulf of Mexico, the island holds sacred significance for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, as well as the ruins of another Spanish-American era fort, but its elevation is just six feet.<\/p>\n

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The historic Egmont Key Lighthouse was built in 1848. After several hurricanes, the lighthouse was rebuilt in 1858 and moved 90 feet to its present location. Now, the entirety of Egmont Key, including the historic lighthouse, is considered vulnerable to sea level rise. (Tampa Bay Times \/ Scott Keeler \/ 2011)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first project that we\u2019ve placed on our annual endangered list because it\u2019s endangered by sea level rise,\u201d said Clay Henderson, president of the trust, when the key was added to the list earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Like the St. Augustine fort and Egmont Key, thousands of Florida\u2019s heritage sites are vulnerable to rising seas, said Henderson, executive director of Stetson University\u2019s Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience. \u201cJupiter Lighthouse, Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West, Fort Jefferson and Fort Pickens in Pensacola \u2014 all of these places are threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at St. Augustine, the oldest city in existence in our country, and it\u2019s flooded twice in the last year, these are real threats,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re no longer academic and off in the future. They\u2019re in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Similar concerns are growing across the state and country as experts begin to assess what could be damaged or lost and how soon that could happen. In some places, damage already is occurring.<\/p>\n

Federal scientists say seas in parts of Florida have risen at a rate of about a third of an inch a year over the past decade. Mid-range forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicate seas could rise anywhere from 13 to 39 inches in Florida by 2070 and as much as 72 inches by 2100.<\/p>\n

Native American burial mounds, antebellum mansions, cemeteries, cracker-era cabins and even examples of more contemporary but unique-to-Florida architecture could be submerged if they are not somehow salvaged.<\/p>\n

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Lorrie Muldowney, a director of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, addresses the Sarasota County Council of Neighborhood Associations during a May forum about climate change and sea level rise. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to save everything,\u201d Muldowney said of Florida\u2019s historic buildings. \u201c ... We\u2019ll have to make choices.\u201d (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo \/ Dale White)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not everything will be saved, said Lorrie Muldowney, a trust board member and former head of Sarasota County\u2019s Historical Resources Department. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to move everything. We\u2019ll have to make choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efforts to save heritage sites will compete for attention and money with the scramble to shore up roads, utilities and neighborhoods against the rising water.<\/p>\n

A team of scientists led by David Anderson with the University of Tennessee recently analyzed an index of thousands of archaeological and historic sites<\/a> across the Southeastern United States. They concluded roughly 3.3 feet of sea level rise could submerge 19,676 archaeological sites in the region.<\/p>\n

It would result in the loss of a substantial portion of the \u201chistoric period human habitation of the coastal margin in the Southeastern United States,\u201d concluded the study, published in late November in the journal PLOS One.<\/p>\n

The study\u2019s authors, also from Northern Kentucky and Indiana universities, added that many resources, including native American sites, might be missing from the Digital Index of North American Archaeology.<\/p>\n