Bringing back coastal treasures cont'd...

A spate of legislation enacted in the past decade or more to protect wetlands
has generated numerous government-managed projects to restore the frayed ribbon of salt marshes edged along the Gulf of Maine. But in recent years, thanks to the work of ecologists, conservation groups and government programs, a small but growing number of these ventures are being driven by citizens and local organizations seeking ways to preserve open space in their communities and undo some of the damage from the past.

The movement to restore salt marshes at the local level is most evident in places like the North Shore of Massachusetts where a coalition of citizen groups has initiated work at nearly a dozen sites along Ipswich Bay. And the trend stretches to the Upper Bay of Fundy, where conservationists are working with transportation officials to target impaired salt marshes. Advocates say the projects illustrate that salt marsh restoration does not have to depend entirely on government agencies.

“There’s this wonderful intrinsic quality when a community initiates the project then brings in the state,” says Stephan Gersh, who spent two and a half years filling out permitting forms and attending town committee meetings along with other volunteers to restore a damaged marsh on Conomo Point in Essex, Massachusetts. Given the expense and complicated engineering aspects of salt marsh restoration, most community launched projects cover about an acre with costs often under $20,000 (CND $30,769).

“Everyone is chipping away at the lowest hanging fruits,” says Eric Hutchins, a biologist for NOAA Fisheries’ Community-Based Restoration Program based in Gloucester. Created in 1996, the program provides funding and expertise to help New England communities restore salt marshes and other estuarine habitats.

Tucked among rocky headlands, along tidal rivers and behind barrier beaches, salt marshes provide critical habitat for fish, birds and other animals.

Flushed twice a day by the tides, they filter out pollutants and buffer the effect of storms and floods on coastal communities. And the salt marsh system–spartina grass, microbe-rich peat, fiddler crabs, mussels, minnow-sized mummichogs, insects, among other elements, is rich with life.

But unease about marshy areas goes back centuries. Early settlers ditched and drained marshes to create fields for salt haying and pastures. Starting in the 1930s, government agencies drained salt marshes to reduce mosquitoes. But once the water disappeared so too did the salt marsh fish that ate the mosquito larvae only making things worse. Then came the suburban boom beginning in the 1960s when many wetlands were filled for residential and commercial development and roads. Though figures vary from each state and province lining the Gulf of Maine, the alterations ultimately destroyed or degraded thousands of acres of salt marsh.

Hank Kolstee explains the workings of a diked marsh along the Cornwallis River in Nova Scotia to Alan Amman (from left), Michele Dionne and Tony Bowron. Photo: Andi Rierden

Restoration provides a flushing mechanism to draw salt water into the marsh while allowing fresh water to continue its ocean- bound course. Projects often entail installing larger culverts beneath roads or railway crossings and grading trenches along the perimeter to serve as a mainline course for seawater. To attract fish, bird and insect habitat, plans can call for plugging drainage ditches to reestablish pools, or pannes, that will catch and hold tide water.

The increase in water and soil salinity also helps to control invasive plants like purple loosestrife and phragmites, often referred to by biologists as “phrag.” The plants resemble tall willowy feather dusters, but in fact they can proliferate in areas where freshwater has pushed into the marsh. The plants choke off spartina grasses and other native plant species, diminishing the marsh’s ability to support a valuable coastal food chain.

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