Fourth Cliff, The Future

 
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The area provides affordable and quality overnight cottages, recreational vehicle sites, campsites and picnic sites for the military community. Over 15,000 people from the military community use the area each year enjoying the most spectular sunsets on the east coasts, views of the ocean the ever changing beaches, and views of the confluence of the North and South Rivers. Fourth Cliff Recreational Area is one of the more popular and successful Morale, Welfare and Recreational activities for Department of the Air Force.
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Fourth Cliff is situated on top of a deposit of glacial till known as a drumlin. The coastal banks located on the east and north sides are experiencing severe erosion which threatens property and infrastructure. Since 1958, approximately 40 feet of coastal bank material was lost due to erosion and storm events. These figures indicate the top of the bank retreats approximately one foot per year. Fourth Cliff is the fourth of a series of four cliffs located on the south-east coast of Massassachuttes in the town of Scituate. It is located at the north end of the peninsula, Humarock, with the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the North and South Rivers to the west. Before 1898, Fourth Cliff was connected to Third Cliff.
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Fourth Cliff is under constant threat from erosion. The area needs approximately $12 million to fund a project that will provide 1300 linear feet of coastal bank stabilization measures to include slope reduction, improved drainage consisting of a swale at the top of the coastal bank with drain lines to the beach, a stone rip rap revetment consisting of a layer of bedding stone (6"- 18") with an outer layer of large angular durable stones (3'- 4') and a vegetative cover consisting of salt tolerant grass and woody shrubs. The project is designed to withstand a 100-year storm event.
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This project is required to prevent the erosion/receding of the coastal bank at the Fourth Cliff Recreational Area. Severe erosion of the coastal bank of Fourth Cliff is threatening one of the only remaining historic WWII Coastal Defensive Battery structure. Continued erosion of the cliff also endangers critical wildlife habitat for threatened species – the Piping Plover and the Least Tern – and diminishes the natural protection afforded to the North and South River salt-marsh estuaries and the channels needed for commercial fishing vessels.
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Further, this project will preserve a the WWII Coastal Defense Battery that is eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places and the two remaining towers.  The battery is the most preserved example of a WWII Coastal Defense system on the East Coast and is a valuable and irreplaceable cultural resource.  In addition this project will enhance natural resources.  The project will provide wildlife habitat opportunities on the dynamic north and east coastal banks and improve the existing avian nesting area to the west. The project will improve the habitat of two Massachusetts listed birds, the Piping Plover and the Least Tern. Both of these birds establish nesting colonies at Fourth Cliff Recreational Area every year and are monitored by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Cliff Front Gate View North
 

Lets

SAVE FOURTH CLIFF