Fall Fridays: Sea Level Rise and Coastal Recreation & Conserved Lands

A walk and talk at the Fore River with Portland Trails exploring the impacts of sea level rise to coastal recreation and conserved lands. This event is part of the Fall Fridays Coastal Stakeholders series, a set of walk-and-talks around Portland and southern Maine. Join GMRI’s Coastal Flooding Community Science Project and a series of local perspectives for discussions of the unique impacts of sea level rise on various coastal stakeholders and the ongoing work to build resilience along our coasts. Portland is lucky to have a system of parks and trails that provide incredible public access to connected green space in the city. Many of these are in coastal locations - like Back Cove, the East End Trail, and the Fore River Sanctuary - that are changing in response to rising waters, with impacts to recreation access and ecosystems. Parks and conserved land can be floodable spaces that are resilient to some impacts of sea level rise, but trails and infrastructure can also be quite vulnerable to flooding and erosion. Join GMRI and Portland Trails at the Fore River Sanctuary, a site offering recreational access to coastal marsh and woodland ecosystems, to understand what sea level rise means for coastal conserved land and public access to recreation. We’ll also check out the tide gauge monitoring water levels on the tidal Fore River and learn how to get involved in coastal flood monitoring through community science. Registration for this event is encouraged but not required.