RISING SEA LEVELS: HENRY’S POND AT RISK

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Penzance Rd Henry's Pond Pebble Beach -4 ©www.kimsmithdesigns.comPenzance Road

Climate change is complicated but the damage done from rising sea levels is very apparent in our own community. With the inundation of seawater upon freshwater ponds, vernal pools, and wetlands, at risk especially are habitats for fish, shellfish, wildlife, and plants.

Penzance Rd Henry's Pond Pebble Beach -3 www.kimsmithdesigns.com

Penzance Road, the narrow strip of land that divides Pebble Beach, on the Atlantic side, and freshwater Henry’s Pond on the opposite side, is periodically closed because of storm damage. I don’t recall ever seeing this degree of destruction however, we have lived here for only twenty years. It would be very interesting and much appreciated to learn from any of our readers who have lived through some of the worst blizzards and hurricanes to hit Cape Ann to compare the levels of damage.

Penzance Rd Henry's Pond Pebble Beach -2 www.kimsmithdesigns.comThe waves surged clear across the road and into freshwater Henry’s Pond.

Penzance Rd Henry's Pond Pebble Beach www.kimsmithdesigns.com

 

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Published by Kimsmithdesigns

Documentary filmmaker, photographer, landscape designer, author, and illustrator. "Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly" currently airing on PBS. Current film projects include Piping Plovers, Gloucester's Feast of St. Joseph, and Saint Peter's Fiesta. Visit my websites for more information about film and design projects at kimsmithdesigns.com, monarchbutterflyfilm.com, and pipingploverproject.org. Author/illustrator "Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! Notes from a Gloucester Garden."

6 thoughts on “RISING SEA LEVELS: HENRY’S POND AT RISK”

  3. In 1972, I lived at the southern end of Penzance Road (in the large house with turret and fence), and in February of that year, we had a whopper of a nor’easter that COMPLETELY destroyed Penzance Road and threw rocks and debris into the pond and elsewhere. It took months to clean it up. This recent storm was rare but certainly not unprecedented.

    Jim Clyde

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    1. Penzance Road has been washed apart this bad at least a dozen times in the past decade plus. I have photographes of many of the storm impacts.

      Nature wants to push the dune into the direction of Henry’s pond…but the road is in the way. As a result the angle of the beach gets steeper with each year and instead of being a sandy beach it is increasingly becoming a rock pile.

      One suggestion…restore a beautiful, naturally functioning dune and beach. Parking could be provided on each end of the dune and get rid of the road. There is lots of local, state and federal and non profit funding available for a project like this.

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      1. That sounds very interesting Eric and beautiful too. What would happen to Henry’s Pond, if there was a dune, because it seems like it is currently below sea level?

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