Assessing long‐term variations in vegetation and land mass within coastal areas on Cape Cod: 2009 report
Johnson SL and Godfrey P. 2015. Assessing long‐term variations in vegetation and land mass within coastal areas on Cape Cod: 2009 report. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NER/NRR—2015/899. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
We present analyses of vegetation and land mass change at selected coastal areas on Cape Cod over a 70‐yr period. The purpose of these analyses is to assess the effectiveness of management recommendations made 30 years ago for beaches within the Cape Cod National Seashore by Dr. Paul Godfrey of the National Park Service Cooperative Research Unit. We focused on Coast Guard Beach, Race Point Beach, and Hatches Harbor. These three sites were among the most heavily used beach areas during previous field studies conducted in the 1970’s and 1980’s evaluating the impacts of visitor use on the natural resources at the National Seashore. We visually assessed and quantified changes in vegetation and land mass using GIS software and aerial photographs. Archived photographs from the original study were also compared with photographs taken again at each site in 2007. Our analyses suggest that recommendations made to the National Park Service to allow these areas to recover by minimizing anthropogenic disturbance and stopping traditional anti‐erosion practices were highly successful. These coastal areas appear to be able to overcome degradation naturally and without assistance from natural resource management in a relatively short period of time.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Johnson, Steven; Godfrey, Paul
- Date of Issue
- 2015-01
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CACO , NCBN , NER , NRSS
- Keywords
- Anthropogenic Disturbance, CACO, Cape Cod, Cape Cod National Seashore, Coast Guard beach, Coastal, Coastal Ecosystems, effects of visitors, Hatches Harbor, National Park Service Cooperative Research Unit, Race Point Beach, vegetation and land mass change