3 places worth saving

As Earth Day approaches, we visit favorite destinations with environmental challenges.

By Kimberly Lisagor

There are certain truths we hold about our world: Glaciers top Mount Kilimanjaro, the Amazon is the largest tropical rain forest, and the Great Barrier Reef is a "wonder of the natural world," to name a few. As it turns out, these "truths" may not always be. Glaciers are melting, rain forests are succumbing to deforestation, and warming oceans are destroying reefs.

These are not foregone conclusions. They are simply reminders that when we visit a place, we are seeing it at a particular moment in time. Our environment is in flux, sometimes in ways we can -- and should -- work to prevent.

In our own country, many of the destinations that we have come to know and love are facing struggles that could lead to dramatic changes within our lifetime. My new book, "Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them" (Vintage, $15.95), co-authored with Heather Hansen, features three whose futures may depend on our ability to see them in a new light and intervene on their behalf.

Napa Valley, Calif.
The problem: Higher temperatures.

Rising temperatures threaten the grapes in Napa Valley.

If recent scientific predictions hold true, Northern California will warm by 2 or 3 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 50 years, altering the growing climate that has long been key to Napa's winemaking success. The fickle grapes need hot days and cool nights throughout their growing season, an environment that fosters growth. "I never like to say that Napa will be no more," says Gregory Jones, a professor and research climatologist at Southern Oregon University, "but any more warming will push Napa to the upper limit of the fairly hot climates in terms of grape growing."
The solution: Halt global warming ... or start importing grapes to Napa from cooler climes for winemaking.

Outer Banks, N.C.
The problem: Shoreline erosion.

Beach erosion and overbuilding have hurt the Outer Banks.

For thousands of years, the surge and retreat of the sea caused a normal push and pull of these barrier islands' coastlines. Shifting sand became a bigger problem in the 1990s, when a 30-year lull in the region's storm cycle came to an end and the multimillion-dollar homes built during that era of calm were suddenly being washed away. Now homeowners are relying on artificial dune ridges and massive sandbags in an attempt to keep the hurricane forces at bay. In doing so, they have blocked the beaches' natural defense against storms and actually exacerbated island erosion. "There's already about 25 miles of the Outer Banks that are seriously eroding and 122 miles that need beach nourishment," says East Carolina University geologist Stanley Riggs, who has worked on the North Carolina coastal system for 44 years. "Whether humans change the Outer Banks, or it changes naturally, it will change."
The solution: Ditch the sandbags, and stop building on the beach.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The problem: Pollution.

Traffic at the Great Smoky Mountains contributes to the park's pollution woes.

America's most visited national park -- named for the thick blue mist that hovers in its valleys -- also has become its smoggiest. Visitors and cars contribute, but the main culprit is fossil-fuel emissions that blow in from as far away as the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Air pollution often reaches levels that are harmful to humans and fatal to certain plants and trees. "We are right now witnessing what may be the greatest change in our Appalachian forest in recorded history," says Erik Plakanis, co-owner of A Walk in the Woods, a nature guide service in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Air pollution is worsening an insect epidemic, which means, "we are going to lose 30% to 70% of the hemlock trees in just a few years, and they're the second most common trees in the park."
The solution: Pass laws that help curb emissions from power plants, such as those in North Carolina.

Kimberly Lisagor last wrote for USA WEEKEND Magazine about theme cruises. She is also the author of "Outside's Wilderness Lodge Vacations."