Vol. 2, No. 3 Contents
Headline Back Issues
Summer 1998
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Workshop in MA spotlights salt marsh monitoring By Chris Cornelisen Ipswich, Massachusetts - Scientists, resource managers, wetland consultants, and interested individuals from around New England learned about methods for monitoring salt marshes and their restoration at a June 2 workshop at Castle Hill overlooking the Great Marsh - the region's largest contiguous salt marsh.
Projects addressing these impacts should be monitored to track their progress and effectiveness, according to Robert Buchsbaum of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a workshop sponsor along with the Great Marsh Summit Initiative, the Gulf of Maine Council, and the Massachusetts Wetland Restoration & Banking Program. Attendees visited a Great Marsh monitoring site where the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the town of Ipswich, and The Trustees of Reservations, a Massachusetts land preservation organization, plan to enlarge a road culvert to restore natural tidal flow in an attempt to reestablish native salt marsh plants and restore access to the marsh for fish such as mosquito-eating mummichogs. Participants also discussed monitoring tidally restricted marshes in Massa-chusetts; implementing a monitoring program for restoration projects funded by the New Hampshire Coastal Program; and methods for monitoring vegetation, fish, invertebrates such as snails and mussels, birds, and hydrology. "When evaluating restoration projects, it is very important that scientists and managers agree on the methods used for collecting data," said Buchsbaum. A future workshop will focus on developing volunteer monitoring programs. Contact Robert Buchsbaum via E-mail at rbuchsbaum@massaudubon.org or call (978) 927-1122 for more information. |
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Salt marshes help prevent erosion of coastal lands, serve as pollution filters, and provide habitat for fish and invertebrates. But structures such as roads and undersized culverts prevent natural tidal flow into and out of many salt marshes. Some were filled during construction and dredging, and others were drained by mosquito control ditches excavated through the 1930s.