By RUSTY DENNEN
Just over an hour's drive from Fredericksburg, still pristine streams flow down the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
In the headwaters of the Rapidan, Rose, Robinson and Hughes rivers are native brook trout. A throwback to the last ice age, the colorful fish have been around for tens of thousands of years and are sought by anglers all over the East Coast.
Though they've been stressed by acid rain and deforestation, there's a bigger threat looming on the horizon. "Unnatural Disaster," a report released yesterday by the National Parks Conservation Association, examines the impact of global warming on the nation's national parks, including some in Virginia.
Shenandoah National Park is a destination for fly-fishing and has some of the best brook trout streams in the eastern United States.
But if water temperatures increase, the already stressed native trout populations could be reduced by 37 percent to 90 percent, the report says.
Climate change also could cause bigger floods, which could flush the fish downstream and scour nesting areas. The effects of a devastating flood in the mid-1990s affected trout populations for years afterward in the Rapidan River.
"Virginia's cultural and historical treasures, safeguarded by our national park system are threatened by global warming," said Catharine Gilliam, NPCA's Virginia program manager.
"Our cultural heritage is at risk--we must all act to protect these special places now."
The agency is calling on Congress and President Bush to cut global-warming emissions from power plants and other polluters. It opposes a rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency that would allow coal-fired power plants to release more pollution and greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
"We have less than 10 years until the 100th birthday of our national park system. Now is the time for action," NPCA President Tom Kiernan said.
An international panel of scientists earlier this year concluded that the unprecedented rise in global temperatures is a direct result of human activity and not a natural phenomenon.
Other parks in Virginia also are threatened, according to the report.
It suggests that Jamestown Island, the site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, could be underwater within 100 years.
Rising sea levels, stronger storms, and larger and more frequent floods could affect parks throughout the Chesapeake Bay area, it concludes.
Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
| HOW SOME PARKS WOULD BE AFFECTED
According to the report, Jamestown Island is below the 100-year flood plain and the entire island is below the 500-year flood plain. In 2003, the island was completely flooded when Hurricane Isabel hit at high tide. Those effects could be magnified by higher sea levels caused by global warming.
Areas from Maryland to North Carolina are at risk for the same reasons, especially fragile barrier islands, such as Cape Hatteras National Seashore. |