TANGIER ISLAND, Va. (WAVY) — Federal, state and local officials met together on Tangier Island last Thursday to discuss possible solutions for the shrinking fishing village.

Alongside Tangier community leaders and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), officials visited sites on the island where land is disappearing due to sea level rise and erosion, followed by a meeting to discuss challenges and solutions for the island.

In November 2023, WAVY produced a special report on Tangier Island. You can view it in the video player above.

Research published by the National Library of Medicine states that the island, which has lost about two-thirds of its land since the 1850s, could be almost completely lost within 50 years.

During the meeting, partners spoke about working alongside the Tangier community and neighboring Port Isobel Island to develop a state-certified resilience plan, which would help secure funding for projects to protect the island.

“Nowhere is the ever-present threat of climate change felt more strongly than on Tangier Island,” CBF President Hilary Harp Falk said. “Now is the time to stand with Tangier and all the coastal communities along the Chesapeake Bay facing unimaginable change.”

Representatives from Tangier, the Virginia state government, the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District and academic institutions and nonprofit organizations all came together to discuss the changes to the island.

“I’m very encouraged,” Tangier Mayor James Eskridge said after the meeting. “To accomplish something, it’s vital to get different groups working together on the same page.”

Possible next steps discussed in the meeting include:

• Working with the Tangier community to develop a certified resilience plan.
• Identifying federal, state and private funding opportunities for projects to protect the island.
• Investing in an engineering study for mitigation and resiliency strategies for Tangier Island.
• Beginning implementation while community infrastructure on Tangier can still be saved.
• Assessing the viability of using beneficial dredge spoils to protect the island.
• Including nature-based coastal adaption strategies, including living shorelines of marsh grasses and oysters that protect shorelines from erosion while creating wildlife habitat and reducing pollution.
• Sharing strategies and outcomes with other coastal communities throughout the watershed and across the country.

Officials hope that the work to be done on Tangier Island can serve as a model for future climate change mitigations and adaptions needed along the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.

“With a clear plan and the right investment, we can preserve Tangier and neighboring Smith Island for at least another generation,” Harp Falk said. “These islands are a fantastic place to demonstrate solutions for what responsible climate adaptation can look like.”

A CBF environmental education center on Port Isobel Island also hopes to provide the opportunity to educate future generations on how to protect the Bay.