Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

Rush opens Rising by describing a line of dead black tupelos along Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. She notes “some have tapering trunks and branches that fork and split. Bark peels from their bodies in thick husks” (1). The origin of the word tupelo is Creek, a Muskogean-speaking Native American group, deriving from the words ito (tree) and opilwa (swamp). These two words combined mean “swamp tree.” The tupelo loves soaking in water, a fact built into its name. These trees were once signs of a healthy wetland.

In the past, tupelos would move to higher elevations as sea levels rose and move back down when the sea receded. Cameron McCormick, the groundskeeper at Jacob’s Point, Rhode Island, explains to Rush that tupelos are no longer able to move in sync with the ocean. He notes that there are two reasons for this. The first is that the rate of sea level rise is happening faster than it has in centuries, meaning “the ocean and the tidal marsh are falling out of sequence” (10). The second is that humans have built communities in wetlands, further preventing this migratory dance. As a result, the tupelos began to suck up more saltwater, which poisoned them and resulted in their deaths.