The View from Morse Mountain

Arguing that resilient coasts emerge from collaborative, cross-disciplinary understanding rather than single-issue solutions

At the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, climate change impacts are visible to the attentive observer. High tides increasingly flood the causeway across the Sprague River Salt Marsh, large winter storms are reshaping the sand dunes at Seawall Beach, and the offshore waters of the Gulf of Maine are among the fastest-warming on the planet. Environmental change is not new there, nor is the impact of human activity, but different parts of this coastal system are changing at different rates, in different ways. Some components are potentially self-renewing, such as the barrier dune beach, while others, such as Piping Plover populations or the salt marshes, might be restored only with assistance. Unfortunately, other components may already be beyond help: the forest of pitch pines between the dunes and the marsh faces the dual threat of saltwater intrusion below ground and potential burial by migrating sands above.

In The View from Morse Mountain, contributors invite readers into this system through an array of complementary inquiries into bedrock geology, carbon capture by salt marshes, dune movement, the physiology of trees, bird migration, perceptual psychology, and the overlays of Indigenous history and colonial settlement. Fostering adaptability, particularly in coastal systems, requires just such an integrated set of examinations and perspectives. This collection of expert analyses works to encourage place-based curiosity in anyone, both those familiar with this area of Maine and people beyond, helping them recognize both loss and resilience, and to deepen their love for the places they treasure.

Contributors include the volume editors as well as Emily Chandler, Caitlin Cleaver, Isobel Curtis, J. Dykstra Eusden Jr., Brett Huggett, Bev Johnson, Dana Oster, Mike Retelle, and Robert Strong.