Hurricane Sandy: when nature bats last

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Unbelievable.

Yes, climate change is real, spawning monster storms now being called the new norm. 

Above is a photo of the salt marshes I took three years ago in early October just inland from the Jersey shore near Avalon, very close to where Hurricane Sandy came ashore last night.

Today the entire area, indeed the entire Jersey coastal region from Cape May to Sandy Hook, has been devastated. 

I wonder if the snowy egret got away.

 NBC Nightly News: Jersey shore

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Avalon 6

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South of Avalon is the Wetlands Institute at Stone Harbor. It's a non-profit organization dedicated to education and research founded in 1969 by the president of the World Wildlife Fund, Herbert Mills.

The protected 6,000 acres of coastal marsh and wetland are inland from the ocean. Its visitor center appears to float on a sea of golden salt-tolerant marsh grasses, principally saltmarsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora).

Cordgrass is an environmental engineer of sorts. As it grows out of the water, sediments accumulate around its base that, in time, are added to the land mass.

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