A Week of Sight Seeing

 This week was quite the week of walking, my group and I saw many cool sites around Boston and in Winthrop! On Tuesday we went to Winthrop with a park ranger and got to observe some cool bivalves along the shore line, we also profiled the coastline by making data points to observe the change in elevation of the coast. We found some interesting rock like objects along the shore and we learned that those objects may have been since the late 1600s and back to the industrial age when factories would dispose of their unwanted materials by throwing them into the harbor. 

The profile project we did was quite interesting although I did come away with a few questions regarding the signifance of measuring the change in elevation. I can guess that the scientist do this to project when the coast will officially errode from the water. Sea levels are rising at an alarming rate and profiling beaches can give us an estimate as to how far and fast these beaches will erode away. In Winthrop specifically I noted that the town has put up cement walls all along the beach front houses and buildings to prevent the rising waters from rushing into the homes and their foundations. Unfortunately this is only a temperary solution because the sea levels will continue to rise and construction companies can only build the walls so high until they block views and essentially become ineffective. The best way to reducing the rate sea levels rise is by reducing our carbon footprint, this may be an obvious solution but we still can do a better job of doing so now. We also need to continue to protect wetlands and marshes, as they act as a natural absorbant to flooding and sea level rising. They also are one of the more bio-diverse ecosystems in nature and are crucial to sustaining life. Without wetlands and marshes the majority of their surrounding areas would become desolate without life other than plants, so we must protect those. 

In connections to wetlands this week we walked around the esplanade and the Charles river, and saw a floating vegetation bed in the water. Along the trail and path around the river there were fenced off areas where plants and other trees were planted to help accelerate the development of plant life around the river. It was so cool to see that people have been making a conserted effort to improve and protect our environment. It truly gives me hope for the future knowing that there are people who care. 

Till Next Week!

Roy Thompson