GREAT FOX ISLAND, Va. (AP) — An environmental group says sea level rise and erosion are bringing an end to the use of an education center on an island in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Capital Gazette reports the Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently announced that this fall is the last season for its Fox Island Education Program.
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Educators with the foundation say sea level rise and erosion are destroying the protective salt marshes surrounding the island located in Virginia waters between the Tangier and Pocomoke sounds. They say that's making the educational center that served teachers and students unsafe.
The foundation says in a blog post that more than 70 percent of the island's land area has washed away over the past 50 years. It calls the center's closure an example of the "real and immediate threat" climate change poses.