♪♪ HUGH HAWTHORNE: Barrier islands naturally change.

They naturally move.

And literally, part of our mission is to protect that change.

BILL HULSLANDER: The diversity of the habitats on Assateague are really, really spectacular.

NARRATOR: A 37-mile stretch of undeveloped beach, forest, and salt marsh, home to thousands of species.

[Horse whinnies] A pristine island paradise nearly lost.

LIZ DAVIS: It was going to be developed into a community similar to Ocean City.

We owe our existence to a Nor'easter.

If that had not happened, this would be a completely different place.

NARRATOR: Now, protected as both a state and national park, the Maryland portion of Assateague Island welcomes 3 million visitors each year.

BILL HULSLANDER: This is really Maryland's only undeveloped natural coastline.

NARRATOR: But today the island faces another urgent threat.

HUGH: Climate change is accelerated change, and if you accelerate the change on this island too much, the island is going to die.

NARRATOR: Explore this dynamic, fragile, coastal environment next.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: A steady March breeze glides across the Atlantic.

[Waves crash] On the horizon, a 167-foot vessel emerges from the mist and ventures brazenly close to a pristine shoreline.

It pauses in the surf before its hull splits in half and enough sand to fill 40 dump trucks empties into the water.

BARRY STULL: My name is Barry Stull and I am the mate for the Dredge Murden.

We've dredged with this boat from Maine down to Fort Mansfield, Texas, which is about 30 miles from the Mexico border.

NARRATOR: The Murden and crew are with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Today, they're in Ocean City dredging sand from the inlet at the south end of town and dumping it about two miles down the coast on Assateague Island's rapidly eroding north end.

BARRY: It acts like a vacuum cleaner.

It sucks the sand in the water up and it comes through the discharge pipe, the elbow there, and it puts it into this long manifold that runs the length of the hopper.

Whenever we get a full load, the hopper actually splits open and all the sand falls out to bottom and we back up and go start and do it again.

NARRATOR: They work day and night for about a week, returning at least twice a year.

Without regular dredging, sand would fill the Ocean City inlet, making it difficult for boats to pass.

BARRY: It's a heavy coarse sand, so it fills up the hopper really quick.

NARRATOR: For these coarse granules, characteristic of Mid-Atlantic beaches, the Dredge Murden is just one stop in a journey that spans millennia.

The smallest grains, fine and black, are magnetite, iron ore from ancient mountaintops in present day Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.

As mountains erode, magnetite moves through the Delaware River Valley to the Delaware Bay, mixing with quartz and shell fragments along the way, before dispersing along the Atlantic Coast.

For millions of years, this pipeline has funneled sand to a network of barrier islands stretching from Delaware to the Carolinas.

It's in these islands nature to change, to shift westward, rolling over in submission to the relentless pounding of the wind and tides.

The shoreline transforms slowly, except when it doesn't.

Before 1933, Assateague was connected to Ocean City.

But on August 22nd of that year, a powerful storm, known only as the Great Hurricane, carved the Ocean City inlet, linking the Sinepuxent Bay to the Atlantic Ocean and reshaping the landscape here forever.

To stabilize the newly formed inlet, the Army Corps of Engineers built rock jetties on each side.

The only problem was sand could no longer move freely down the coast.

BILL HULSLANDER: Coastal geologists predicted that if we didn't step in with some kind of corrective action, that the north end of the island would slowly disintegrate and likely breach into multiple inlets.

NARRATOR: Enter the Murden and the Shoreline Replenishment Project.

Bill Hulslander, Chief of Natural Resources at Assateague National Seashore, has been involved in the program since it began in 2002.

BILL: The field data is indicating that the rate of shoreline retreat has definitely slowed and is now approaching the pre-inlet conditions.

NARRATOR: At its narrowest point, the north end of the island is only a few hundred meters wide.

If it were to be lost to erosion, mainland communities to the west would lose an important buffer from Atlantic storms and high tides.

And some residents would lose their homes altogether.

MOLLY STRUBLE: You guys make sure you have your zip ties and your green ties.

NARRATOR: It's dawn on a cool June morning.

Armed with a hula-hoop and camera, Molly Struble, a biological science technician with the National Park Service, is tracking a pair of new parents.

MOLLY: It'll do, we call it a peep-lo, so it'll be kind of like peep-lo, peep-lo.

[bird chirps] NARRATOR: The piping plover is a federally threatened species known to nest on undisturbed, sandy shorelines.

Assateague's north end is one of the few places secluded enough.

The birds thrive in this constantly changing environment where every so often a storm will cause the ocean to wash over the island, covering vegetation with sand and keeping it moist and ready for foraging.

MOLLY: So these are piping plover tracks right here, and you can kind of see how they get heavy.

NARRATOR: Molly and her team are charged with finding and protecting these vulnerable nests.

MOLLY: And then our nest... ...is right here.

We got four eggs.

NARRATOR: As Molly takes a few photos, the rest of the team approaches single file, disturbing as little sand as possible.

After all, the piping plover isn't the only shorebird nesting on the sand.

The gray and brown speckled eggs of the American oystercatcher also dot the beach.

Spotting them is like a high-stakes Easter egg hunt: one wrong step could be devastating.

Back at the nest, Molly prepares to float the eggs in distilled water.

The angle of the bobbing egg helps her determine how close it is to hatching.

MOLLY: This one is going to be at 90 as well.

NARRATOR: The eggs in this nest make a perfect right angle.

MOLLY: Now that we do have that 90 degrees, we can go back to our charts and get a egg laying cycle for this nest and figure out when it will hatch and start our monitoring for it.

We'll put the gate up to the north side of the dune.

NARRATOR: Now, it's time to protect the nest and leave so the anxious parents can return.

MOLLY: So we're going to put up an exclosure around the nest.

It's going to be equidistant on all sides with the nest in the middle.

We do this so that we can protect the nest from any predators.

We do get foxes up here and we have crows, grackles, things that like to try to get into the nest and eat the eggs.

NARRATOR: At about seven inches long, the piping plover is the only bird around small enough to fit through the bars.

MOLLY: We want to make sure that it's completely secure all the way around the exclosure.

And that's an exclosure at Assateague.

The bird was attentive the whole time, piping around us while we were putting it up, and it returned safely to it after we put it up.

BILL: National parks are typically the last places for things like piping plovers and other rare species to be able to live and prosper.

So we take that responsibility very seriously and do what we can to protect and conserve those species.

Liz Davis: Caught 'em during their nap, didn't we?

WOMAN: Yes.

LIZ: Yeah [Chuckles].

NARRATOR: It may not be rare, but one species tends to steal the spotlight no matter what it does.

WOMAN: These are most likely all females?

LIZ: These are, yeah, members of the same band, and typically a band is made up of all mares and then one stallion that keeps the mares together.

And there is an offspring in there.

NARRATOR: The Assateague Island ponies are the stuff of legend.

A centuries old herd of feral horses, their dignified existence and mysterious origins are as much a part of the island's ethos as the ocean itself.

LIZ: There's a couple of different legends about the wild horses on Assateague.

Probably the most famous legend that you hear about is our horses were survivors of shipwrecks.

NARRATOR: Now retired, Liz Davis spent 30 years educating visitors as the chief of interpretation at the National Seashore, answering lots of questions about the ponies.

LIZ: They were probably horses that are descendants of those that were put over on the island by by local farmers to avoid having to you know build fences and pay taxes on their livestock and things like that.

So they were... WOMAN: That's why they're here.

LIZ: There's a third- there's a third theory that maybe these horses were dropped off by pirates.

[dramatic music plays] NARRATOR: In short, how they arrived on Assateague is still up for debate.

MAN: Hey!

Hey!

NARRATOR: Many visitors to the Maryland portion of the island are surprised to learn that the horses here are not involved in the annual pony swim and auction.

Those horses live in Virginia separated from the Maryland herd by a fence at the state border.

But long before that fence, the ponies and even state lines, the earliest occupants of Assateague likely visited the area for hunting, fishing, and gathering.

LIZ: Our island names came from some of the local tribes in the area, the Assateagues and the Gingoteagues or the Chincoteagues.

We know that they probably didn't have permanent settlements on the island, just maybe seasonal camps.

NARRATOR: The first permanent residences on the island were associated with the U.S. Lifesaving Service, a precursor to the Coast Guard founded in 1871.

But as is the case for many wind-swept waterfront locales, Assateague soon caught the eye of developers.

LIZ: I'm taking a walk on Baltimore Boulevard.

This is one of the last remaining pieces of evidence of the Ocean Beach community that was going to occur on Assateague Island in the 1950's and 60's.

NARRATOR: Marketed as the best and last of the great Atlantic Ocean beaches, Ocean Beach was promised to be affordable too.

LIZ: Houses were starting to be built.

This whole area was divided up into about 9,000 different lots.

NARRATOR: Ocean Beach seemed destined to progress like its neighbor to the north, the paved and populace Ocean City.

Then in March of 1962, a powerful Nor'easter hit the coast.

NEWSMAN: On Assateague Island, the effects of the storm are even worse than at Ocean City.

All but the sturdiest homes were ripped off their pilings and often deposited far inland from their original positions.

LIZ: There was full moon.

I mean, it was all the conditions came together and the island really overwashed.

So the developer at the time decided maybe now was the time to sell to the government.

NARRATOR: Today, the entire 37-mile island is protected land, falling under the jurisdiction of three separate government agencies.

Assateague Island National Seashore makes up most of the 22-mile Maryland portion save for a two-mile stretch in the middle, Assateague State Park.

To the south, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, run by the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, makes up the Virginia portion of the island.

Assateague welcomes more than 3 million visitors each year, many of them to see the wild horses.

And these famed equines are wild, no matter how tame they may appear.

BILL: They're such large mammals that they can be very dangerous.

We have visitors that are kicked every year.

We have some visitors that are bitten every year.

It's best to just keep the safe distance away, which is 40 feet, and respect them as wildlife.

NARRATOR: The horses roam freely between the national seashore and the state park.

They spend much of their time in the marsh.

KARA HOLLAND: This is a really large band.

I think there's about 12 horses.

NARRATOR: Except as state park naturalist Kara Holland can attest, during peak camping season.

KARA: Typically, there's no people on the island for them to interact with, but during the summertime they'll come to our developed areas such as the campground or in our parking lots because they unfortunately associate people with food.

So it brings a lot of the horses that we don't typically see, a lot of the larger bands into one area, which is very dangerous, not only for the horses themselves, but for the people that are around in that area camping.

NARRATOR: Kara is part of the state park's pony patrol.

Her job is to teach campers how to coexist with these 800-pound wild animals.

KARA: So I was just stopping by because I noticed that you had a watermelon on your table.

WOMAN: Haven't made it in yet.

KARA: If you don't mind moving that in, we would really appreciate it.

The horses are making their way down from the other side of H loop.

So just a heads-up on that, but thank you.

WOMAN: Yeah.

KARA: So when I'm walking around, what I'm looking for is on the picnic tables and around the...campers is if they have coolers out, food, trash bags, and if they have a site where they have one of our new horse-resistant picnic tables, I would just ask them instead of storing it beside their camper, if they could put it inside of that picnic table.

Yep.

If you could just back away for me.

MAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

NARRATOR: If they do raid a campsite, Kara steps in.

MAN: What are you using water?

KARA: It's just water.

So we'll just spray at their shoulder level and it normally will do just enough to keep them moving.

It doesn't scare them in any way and it doesn't harm them.

NARRATOR: As bands of horses from all corners of the island converge on campsites looking for food, Kara watches for signs of conflict brewing between stallions, usually over mares.

KARA: The stallions will do what we call posturing.

So they'll come up to the other horse that's kind of in their territory and it's almost like a sign of back off, you're in my area.

They'll just smell at each other.

Sometimes they'll fight with one another.

But most of the time, it's one running the other one off.

NARRATOR: Whether sparring or subdued, Assateague's horses bring an untamed romance to the island, but they're just part of the reason many choose to come here.

RANGER: Checking in?

MELANIE PAZZINI: Yes, we're checking in.

NARRATOR: Five years ago, Melanie Pazzini of Pasadena came here with her family for a long weekend.

MELANIE: So we have a lot of stuff we'll be unloading.

NARRATOR: They liked it so much, the following year their long weekend got longer.

Now, they come for a week.

MELANIE: I would come longer, but a week is already pushing it for the rest of the family.

They're ready to go home.

But I love being here.

The essentials we bring are lots of extra towels, sunblock, bug spray for sure.

We try to move in for the week.

We try to move in for the week.

We try to make it so that we're comfortable here.

We don't have to go anywhere.

We don't really go and do a whole lot when we're here.

It's so different than our actual lives back home because I have three kids and I have a daughter that does dance and a son that does soccer and school and I do daycare.

So we're busy, we're nonstop.

There is no downtime.

Here, we can just be a family and there is no schedules to follow.

There is no time that we have to be somewhere.

There's no really distractions from phones or friends.

We can just kind of relax.

That's my favorite.

NARRATOR: For those without the time or inclination to camp, the state park has a day-use beach that can fill up fast with surfers and sunbathers.

But today, the excitement is further south, near the park's nature center.

DEREK COSS: Looks like we got multiple little villages here.

What is this- what is this horseshoe crab?

NARRATOR: Here, the spotlight is on sandcastles.

DEREK: What's this castle's name?

NARRATOR: Derek Coss is a Maryland Conservation Corps member, and Jen Bowers is a state park naturalist.

DEREK: Oh my goodness.

JEN BOWERS: Wow!

NARRATOR: But today, each has taken on a different title.

DEREK: Sand castle judgers!

[Laughs] So maybe we'll come back to these.

It looks like they're still building the last claw.

All right, you guys got 10 more minutes.

We'll come back to you.

That is really cool.

Is that really a castle though?

JEN: More of sculpture.

DEREK: Yeah.

It is a sculpture.

Typically, we're looking for things like how neat the structure is.

What's the overall organization, you know?

Is it on a mountain?

Is it covered by a moat, covered by walls?

Does it like make sense?

You know is it a cohesive kind of overall structure?

The moat worked and the ridge on the hill.

JEN: Points for uh, structural integrity.

DEREK: And how sound is the structure too.

My only concern is how long this can hold up, you know.

Like how long are we going to have to keep, you know putting our workers to work rebuilding?

JEN: A lot.

DEREK: Did you want to tell us anything about it?

KID: Crab.

DEREK: It's a crab.

NARRATOR: As Derek and Jen deliberate, high tide approaches, a reminder that the competitors' work is fleeting, and soon these masterpieces will be swept to sea.

[Birds skittering] Of course, nothing is permanent here on Assateague, where the ocean must wash over the island from time to time.

Driven by coastal storms, this natural process is essential to maintaining the island's geologic integrity and the diverse plant and animal communities that depend on it.

It's a concept so fundamental to this place, it's part of the national park's official mission statement.

HUGH: One of the things that we're supposed to protect are the natural forces of change.

NARRATOR: As superintendent of Assateague Island National Seashore, Hugh Hawthorne is tasked with implementing this seemingly contradictory mission.

HUGH: And that's why we don't try too hard to stop the island from moving because it's part of our mission to let the island do what it wants to do.

DAD: Keep pulling it in.

ANNABELLE: Got it, got it, got it.

Yes!

DAD: Good job, Annabelle.

ANNABELLE: Is it big enough?

Is it big enough?

DAD: We'll check.

It is big enough.

NARRATOR: A favorite spot for crabbing, the ecologically diverse salt marsh relies on the island's movement.

Covering about 5,000 acres, nearly 30 percent of the island, the marsh craves a steady diet of sand from the ocean side carried west by natural forces of wind and water.

HUGH: It's a mix of saltwater and freshwater, and it's a very, very productive ecosystem.

NARRATOR: An ecosystem that begins with this, marsh grass, and the ribbed Atlantic mussels that attach themselves to it, creating a giant filter for nearby bays.

HUGH: That allows the base of the food chain, the phytoplankton and the small fish to survive in large numbers, which feed the crabs and everything higher up the food chain.

NARRATOR: As natural forces transform Assateague, there is another more insidious kind of change at work.

HUGH: Climate change is accelerated change, and if you accelerate the change on this island too much, the island is going to die.

NARRATOR: By the year 2040, scientists predict the water level here will rise between four and eight inches, bringing higher concentrations of saltwater into this delicate marsh habitat.

HUGH: One of the obvious effects if you look off at this direction, you can see what we call a ghost forest.

The saltwater gets into the roots of those trees and is killing them.

NARRATOR: And though Assateague relies on storms, they're getting stronger and more frequent.

Erosion is accelerating.

HUGH: We measure it in feet.

We don't measure it in inches.

And there are places on this island that have eroded 10 feet in two years.

NARRATOR: Dunes are shifting west fast, often leaving campsites covered in sand.

HUGH: And this is happening right now.

This dune line is moving.

It's probably moving faster than our projections.

So when we say 2040, it's probably more like 2035 before uh, this whole area gets overrun by sand.

NARRATOR: A challenge that's inspired a rethinking of how things are done here.

HUGH: We don't build anything permanent on this island.

Everything that we build from now on, with the exception of the roads, is movable.

NARRATOR: On state park property, permanent structures are also a thing of the past, but the approach to the dunes is different.

Rather than letting nature take its course, they're using fences to try to keep sand in place, testing different configurations at each campsite to see which shape, if any, makes a difference.

Despite an uncertain future, Assateague remains an achievement in conservation and a place of hope.

Today, it's the site of a triumphant farewell party for a pair of endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtles.

CAITLIN BOVERY: Hi, guys.

So this is a sea turtle.

NARRATOR: Hosting is rehabilitation manager Caitlin Bovery and her team from the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

CAITLIN BOVERY: He's been with us at the National Aquarium for six months now, recovering from pneumonia and infections because of cold-stunning.

Assateague Island is a perfect location for us to release these sea turtles this time of year.

The water temperature is exactly what we need it to be, and it's a really great calm, natural habitat.

It provides a safe space for those turtles to return to the sea where there's not as much activity in the area.

NARRATOR: If they survive, their yearly migration from Mexico to New England could bring them back this way again, though probably not to shore.

But if they were to return, they wouldn't be the first visitors to yearn for more time on this island where unspoiled beaches, ever-changing seas, and charismatic wildlife have charmed generations.

And surely, Assateague Island will continue to captivate for as long as these shifting shorelines endure.

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(owl hoots) ♪ ♪