Interior Secretary Sally Jewell got a firsthand look Thursday at theeffect of climate change on ever-recedingJamestown Island, concluding thatAmerica's first permanent European settlement is clearly vulnerable to rising seas.

Led by National Park Service rangers, Jewell trekked around the island, where some sections now lie beneath the James River, and heard of the devastation in 2003 when Hurricane Isabel raked the low-lying landscape. The storm left many parts of the island underwater and destroyed thousands of artifacts retrieved from archaeological digs. Many are still being restored.