(Original airdate: Dec. 5, 2023.)

Climate change, driven by human activity, has upset the balance of ecosystems and natural processes the world over.

In the Chesapeake Bay, changes to the natural environment that usually occur over hundreds or thousands of years are taking place in the span of a lifetime. Sea-level rise is causing salty ocean water to crawl farther and farther into the bay and onto nearby coastlands.

Jeremy Cox is a Chesapeake Bay Journal staff writer who has written about saltwater intrusion.

Some of the oldest farmland in the country is on the Delmarva peninsula, and threatened by eroding coast lands and saltwater.

Bob Fitzgerald lives on the Eastern Shore in Somerset County. His family has farmed in the same area for many generations.

And Sarah Hirsh, Ph.D., has been an extension educator for University of Maryland in Somerset County since 2018. Her research and Extension program focuses on soils, conservation and cover crops.

(Photo by Julio Cortez, AP)

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