Fla. archaeology group warns of climate's effect on historic sites - Palm Beach Post
Fla. archaeology group warns of climate's effect on historic sites
Archaeology group fights to preserve historic Jupiter site and others from rising seas
Julius Whigham II
JUPITER — Walking along the shoreline near the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, archaeologist Sara Ayers-Rigsby points to a historic seawall.
She describes the potential effects of flooding from king tides and other events.
"As these events become more frequent, it's just going to contribute to deteriorating that, and then you have a situation where it is then flooding the site and submerging these historic and archaeological resources," said Ayers-Rigsby, director of the Florida Public Archaeology Network's Southeast and Southwest regions.
Members of the Florida Public Archaeology Network gathered with officials from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Palm Beach County Office of Resilience for a workshop Saturday morning at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area, discussing the effects of climate change and other factors on historic and archaeological resources.
Ayers-Rigsby said the Outstanding Natural Area is unique in terms of its historical significance.
"We have 6,000 years of history at this site," she said. "So we have essentially continuous occupation from that time period very long ago. So it's unique in the sense that it has this very early occupation. There's not a lot preserved in Palm Beach County that has that evidence of that early occupation."
On Saturday, the group observed rising waters from a king tide moving through the area. A king tide is a non-scientific term people often use to describe exceptionally high tides. Such events typically occur six times a year, but scientists predict there could be 10 times that many annually by the year 2050.
"It can impact our infrastructure," Natalie Frendberg, an analyst for the Office of Resilience, said about the rising water levels. "Climate change is happening. We've already seen this year there's been record-breaking Category 5 hurricanes. That's going to cause more erosion, more wave action, more wind. That can really impact coastal archaeological sites."
Saturday's meeting included a presentation on climate change and a roundtable discussion about threats facing the county's coastal heritage.
"Today we're really trying to think about, not only the impacts of climate change, but also think about why cultural resources are important, why archaeological resources are important, why historical resources are important and why those are just as important as (other) infrastructure to defining a community," Ayers-Rigbsy said.
She said incidents of water rushing in and then moving back as king tides recede creates the potential for sensitive archaeological materials to erode or be displaced.
"Obviously, the water is really high now, so we will have to check it out at low tide and then there might be artifacts eroding along the beach, " she said. "That's really problematic because we obviously don't want people picking up artifacts. We want to leave (them) in place and leave them associated with the site."
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.