Crews will soon begin work to repair damaged boardwalks and beach access stairs at Fire Island National Seashore in New York.

The National Park Service is facing a water conundrum: some parks have too little, some parks have too much. While an historic drought continues to parch much of the Western United States, a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association predicts that sea levels across the United States will rise, on average, 10-12 inches by 2050. In other words, from Maine to Florida to Texas and all the way up to Alaska, there are more than 100 national park units threatened by the slow siege of rising coastlines.

A study in Nature warns that National Park System units in the Northeast face greater risk from the combination of potent hurricanes, storm surge, sea-level rise, and flooding than those in other parts of the country.

At Fire Island National Seashore in New York, Hurricane Sandy tore a gaping hole through the seashore’s eastern side, a breach that in hindsight carried much-needed ecological benefits and some important lessons on how park units can recover from major damage.