Smith Island, a remote archipelago situated about 12 miles offshore in the Chesapeake Bay, represents Maryland’s last inhabited offshore island community. This unique location is home to a centuries-old watermen culture, which is spread across three small villages: Ewell, Tylerton, and Rhodes Point. The island is renowned for its distinctive dialect and strong community values. Smith Island is actively shrinking and losing landmass at a relentless and accelerating pace.
Historical Context and Current Rate of Land Loss
The island’s land area has diminished significantly over the last two centuries, transforming a once cohesive landmass into a fragmented marsh. Historical surveys confirm the dramatic reduction in acreage, with over 3,300 acres of wetlands lost in the last 150 years alone. This disappearance has separated the island’s three main settlements, with Tylerton now sitting on its own isolated islet. Erosion along the western shoreline reaches up to 12 feet per year in some areas, transforming solid ground into open water. The fate of nearby Holland Island, which was completely abandoned in 1922, serves as a stark historical precedent. The visible recession of the shoreline and the ongoing encroachment of the Bay waters confirm the island is actively struggling with a measurable crisis.
Geological and Environmental Causes of Island Retreat
The disappearance of Smith Island is the result of a powerful combination of three distinct environmental and geological forces. The primary driver is eustatic sea level rise, the global increase in ocean water volume resulting from the thermal expansion of warming seawater and melting ice. This global trend is compounded locally, leading to the Chesapeake Bay experiencing one of the highest rates of sea level rise on the East Coast.
Geological subsidence is a second factor, which is the sinking of the land itself. This regional phenomenon is partly attributed to the lingering effects of the 35-million-year-old Chesapeake Bay impact crater. The crater’s deep fill continues to compact, causing the entire region, including Smith Island, to gradually sink. This subsidence effectively doubles the rate at which the sea appears to rise relative to the island.
The third factor is physical erosion and wave action continually wearing away the island’s low-lying, marshy structure. Smith Island is composed primarily of vulnerable tidal marshlands and unconsolidated sediments that offer little resistance to wave energy. Stronger storms and greater tidal forces accelerate the physical breakdown and wash away the fragile shoreline sediments.
Community Impact and Preservation Efforts
The environmental changes have had profound socio-economic and cultural consequences for the island’s residents. The population has dwindled to roughly 200-270 year-round residents, a significant decline from past decades, and the number of active watermen has fallen to about 20. The decline in population led to the closure of the island’s only school.
The psychological toll on residents facing relocation is immense, as the community’s identity is inextricably linked to the water and the land. Following damage from Hurricane Sandy, the state of Maryland offered a voluntary home buyout program in 2013. This was largely rejected by residents, sparking a shift from managed retreat toward stabilization efforts.
Preservation efforts now focus on engineering projects aimed at protecting the remaining landmass. Millions of dollars in federal and state funding have been secured for infrastructure improvements, including:
- New jetties
- Stone sills
- Elevated roads
The construction of breakwaters along the shoreline is designed to reduce wave energy and slow erosion. These projects also protect and restore hundreds of acres of wetlands and submerged aquatic vegetation.
Projected Timeline for Inhabitation
Scientific modeling based on current trends provides an outlook for the island’s long-term habitability. Projections for the Chesapeake Bay area suggest a sea level increase of 1 to 2 feet by 2050 and potentially more than 4 feet by the end of the century. Given Smith Island’s low elevation, these increases have direct implications for the residential areas.
Experts warn that the island’s main villages could become functionally uninhabitable by 2050 with just one foot of sea level rise. If the current rates of land loss and sea level rise continue unabated, the island is projected to be almost completely submerged and eroded by 2100. This leaves the community and government agencies with the decision of whether to continue investing in expensive stabilization projects or to plan for eventual managed retreat.