Cape Cod has an erosion problem.The Atlantic Ocean is ravenously gnawing at the shoreline bluff of Morris Island in Chatham, Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. On the Cape’s southernmost point, erosion has taken between 30 and 45 feet of land every year for the past few years.
As the bluff’s edge has receded inland, Monomoy’s Refuge Manager Rick Nye has faced difficult tasks, preemptively removing structures onsite before they tumble down the bluff and become marine debris. In April 2024, the property’s final building standing, its headquarters and visitor center, was removed.
Having carefully considered all options for a path forward, the Service decided not to try and stop Mother Nature, but instead to adapt.The Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge headquarters and visitor center building. The building was demolished in April 2024 due to unsafe conditions caused by the property’s rapidly eroding coastal bluff. This film funded in part through a CARE 2024 by Jan Crocker and Tim Wood grant gives an overview of the problem and suggests how we can all play a role in slowing the inevitable.