Tangier Challenges Color Governor Spanberger and Chesapeake Bay Commission Visits to Island

The Chesapeake Bay Commission (CBC) this week traveled to Tangier, Virginia, where commission members reaffirmed their commitment to work toward the goals outlined in the updated Chesapeake Bay Agreement and highlighted efforts to preserve and protect Tangier Island.

In her first formal trip to Tangier since being elected governor, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger also joined commission members and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) on Tangier, emphasizing her administration’s commitment to supporting the island.

“As Virginia’s last inhabited island in the Chesapeake Bay, it is imperative that we continue to support Tangier and the Virginians who call it home,” Governor Spanberger said in a statement after meeting with local leaders and commission members.

The visits came amid recently bolstered efforts between local, state, and federal partners to preserve the island and make it more resilient to rising threats from erosion and sea level rise.

The CBC held its September meeting on Thursday and Friday on Tangier and neighboring Port Isobel Island, which is home to CBF’s environmental education center.

During the meetings, commission members renewed their commitment to implementing the revised Chesapeake Bay Agreement, which sets various targets on pollution reduction and restoration in the Bay watershed by 2040, and learned more about CBF’s initiatives to protect and preserve Tangier and Port Isobel.

“There is no better place than Tangier for the Chesapeake Bay Commission to reaffirm its commitment to meeting our long-term Bay clean-up goals,” said Chesapeake Bay Foundation President and CEO Hilary Harp Falk. “We’re grateful that Governor Spanberger and commission members took the time to learn about the issues Tangier is facing and the kinds of resilience efforts it will take to preserve the island and its people.”

Falk, who also spoke to the commission about CBF’s environmental education programs on nearby Port Isobel, noted that Tangier presents a preview of challenges facing coastal communities around the globe.

“Success preserving and restoring the island and its surroundings will not only help ensure its culture and way of life can endure, but it can also provide a model of what’s possible when communities, governments, and conservation partners work hand in hand,” she said.

Work on Tangier, which has lost two-thirds of its land mass since 1850, can serve as a model for how the nation can leverage nature-based solutions and inform the response of coastal communities across the country facing erosion and sea level rise.

With CBF’s environmental education center adjacent to Tangier on Port Isobel, the model could also help educate the next generation about restoration efforts to protect the Bay and its unique communities as they are challenged by sea level rise, erosion, and stronger storms.

At the town’s request, CBF is administering a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant intended to help preserve Tangier by developing a shoreline adaptation plan. This is a comprehensive roadmap to protecting the island from accelerating coastal erosion, intense storms, and long-term sea-level rise. The plan is an essential first step for the island to earn state and federal grants for resiliency projects. The town is seeking funding to support the final planning and permitting phase for a combined restoration and protection project.

An existing partnership between CBF and Old Dominion University’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience is supporting Tangier in pursuing a broad-based adaptation plan. Expanding the coalition to include other key stakeholders like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Accomack County, and federal and state officials has been invaluable in acting swiftly, and is the kind of multi-layered partnership model that will be needed to protect similarly situated coastal communities across the U.S.