Bringing back coastal treasures cont'd...

Sprawl crowds Maine’s largest marsh

At 3,000 plus acres (1,200 hectares), Scarborough Marsh in Maine is vast, comprising 15 percent of the state’s tidal marshes. Home to wintering and migratory waterfowl, the marsh is a well-known spot for birding, nature study, canoeing, fishing and hunting. Take a closer look, however, and there is cause for alarm. Twenty-five years ago when the town of Scarborough resembled a sleepy coastal village, phragmites growth on the marsh was nonexistent. Now boxed in by commercial and residential developments, the marsh is burdened by large pockets of the plumes, which have sprouted along Route 1 and other areas. At the same time, development along the fringe has consumed vital habitat for wildlife that use both the marsh and the surrounding uplands to survive.

CD Armstrong, a nearby resident is among the worried. “Scarborough is one of the fastest growing towns in the state and we’re very concerned that the impact will change the marsh forever,” he says. Last year Armstrong and a group of local residents and conservationists formed Friends of Scarborough Marsh to help protect the marsh and push for its restoration. They now have 12 members on their board of directors, a Web site (www.scarborough.com) and a growing mailing list. A fund-raising campaign has enabled the group to hire a consulting firm to study a large portion of the marsh.

Like many marshes in the Gulf region, the human alterations of Scarborough have occurred for centuries. In the 1840s, the Eastern Railroad causeway created the first impediment to the marsh. From the 1800s into the 1930s or later the land was used for salt haying and vast areas of the marsh were diked to keep the sea water out and ditched to make the water drain quickly. In the 1950s the state installed tide gates to keep areas as a freshwater marsh to attract certain waterfowl. The gates were later removed but the loss of salt marsh vegetation and elevation in those areas suggest that the obstructions created permanent changes. Today a web of road culverts, ditches and other human-made changes restrict tidal flow and drain the marsh.

Lois Winter, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is working with Friends, other local supporters and federal and state agencies to devise a plan to restore the Scarborough Marsh. Standing on the edge of road that crosses Black Point Road overlooking a stunning expanse of golden grasses and deep blue waters, she points to a thicket of phragmites nearby and other signs of human alterations. She explains how years of ditching the marsh robbed it of vital pools of water for birds, fish and other marsh life. “You look out and it appears to be a beautiful marsh,” Winter says. “But if you’re a shorebird flying overhead and see the dried pools, lack of widgeon grass and aquatic invertebrates, things may not look very appealing.”

The plan to improve the health of the marsh includes using $475,000 from the Julie N oil spill settlement, which occurred in Portland Harbor in 1996. Phil Bozenhard, a biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the agency that owns the marsh, says there are at least four sites of concern. “But that’s just a drop in the bucket,” he adds, because each site has its own layers of sensitive factors. “We’ve got a lot of sharp-tailed sparrows nesting in the marsh so you have to be very careful if you try to alter the water level because these little guys nest right above the water line,” he continues. “We don’t want to do anything that will damage something else.” The sparrow is listed as a species of special concern under Maine’s Endangered Species Act.

Most likely the project will include enlarging culverts and plugging ditches to alter the tidal flow to create pools. The plugs consist of plywood that can easily be removed or altered if water elevations threaten wildlife.

Bozenhard says once an environmental assessment of the marsh is complete, obtaining permits to begin restoration work should go smoothly. “When you have all the players behind a project like this, it becomes a lot easier to permit.”

In Nova Scotia, choosing the right candidate

In the Upper Bay of Fundy, Tony Bowron and other citizens are scouting salt marshes with the goal of finding sites to restore. Working closely with Elizabeth Pugh an environmental engineer for the Department of Transportation and Public Works, Bowron’s team is examining road crossings over marshes that may be restricting tidal flow because of culvert size or other factors. Last fall, Bowron and his colleagues at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, organized a salt marsh restoration workshop in Wolfville attended by scientists, conservationists and citizens from throughout the Gulf region. Guests included veteran salt marsh restoration experts Michele Dionne, of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maine, and Alan Amman of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in New Hampshire. The two-day event explored the science, monitoring protocols and costs of restoration.

Pugh, who participated in the workshop, later met with Bowron to explore restoration possibilities that might coincide with road construction through marsh systems. “I definitely see lots of potential for this,” Pugh says. “We’re now waiting to hear from Tony to see which ones he thinks are good candidates, then we’ll take it to our maintenance people and go from there.”

Other, but less likely candidates for restoration include fallow dikelands. First constructed in the 1700s by French Acadian farmers, the dikes span 240 kilometers (150 miles) along coastal waters and block 17,000 hectares (43,000 acres) of farm lands that would otherwise be covered with saltwater during high tides. But because of their historic and agricultural significance, the lands have become increasingly protected by law.

Last fall Nova Scotia passed the Agricultural Marshland Conservation Act in response to growing pressure to use existing farmed dikelands for commercial and residential development. Hank Kolstee, who supervises the maintenance of the dikes for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, says the Act aims to preserve agricultural land, which is some of the richest in the Maritimes, and to prevent people from building on the flood plain. “Protecting housing and commercial development was never the purpose of diking these lands,” Kolstee says. Given the high tides of the Bay of Fundy, which can range to 15 meters (50 feet) and rising sea levels, he adds, “Why should we put people at risk when we know that sooner or later they could get flooded out?”

Although the law provides provisions to restore dikelands no longer used for farming back to salt marsh, Kolstee says, “It’s difficult to do.”

Bowron says that the dikelands, “are not off the radar screen, but the one thing we learned from the workshop is that you go after the smaller projects first, then gain some success before tackling the big ones. The reality is, the dikelands are the big ones and the toughest to get.”

Dave Sargent, left, and Stubby Knowles, at Long Wharf in Gloucester, MA, are among the vanguard of the citizen-based salt marsh restoration movement. Photo: Andi Rierden

Dave Sargent and Stubby Knowles in Massachusetts agree that citizens should keep a project as simple as possible and make certain to have a groundswell of community support. Five years ago Sargent, a shellfisherman, was monitoring for pollution sources in a Gloucester clam bed when he discovered a collapsed culvert under a stone pier known as Long Wharf. With no blueprint in hand, he called Knowles, the town’s shellfish constable, and the two men began attending “a long, seemingly endless series of meetings,” with officials to have the culvert replaced. Their persistence paid off. After two years they cobbled together enough technical, financial or in-kind support from various government agencies. In 1999, a new culvert costing $8,100 (CND $12,460) was installed, which has improved tidal flow and fish passage. Today Long Wharf is considered a landmark site for community-based restoration and a laboratory for WHAT program volunteers and school children.

Vivian Kooken, WHAT volunteer coordinator (standing) with volunteers Eva Newman and Liz Sorenson at the Conomo Point marsh site. · Photo: Ellie Ely, The Volunteer Monitor.

“You just build and build support until the very end,” advises Sargent, who along with Knowles continues to work on coastal restoration projects. “There’s no other way to approach it.”

Resources for salt marsh restoration

Web sites
An excellent source for wetlands restoration information is the U.S. E.P.A’s River Corridor and Wetland Restoration Web site at: www.epa.gov/OWOW/wetlands/restore/. Restoration principles, state restoration links and funding sources are among a comprehensive list of topics.

Another extensive site from E.P.A is the Biological Indicators of Watershed Health page at www.epa.gov/ceisweb1/ceishome/atlas/bioindicators/.

A list of workshops and activities for the WHAT program can be found at:
www.salemsound.org (click on “volunteers”).

Guides
A Citizen’s Guide to Restoring Massachusetts Wetlands: How to Participate in the GROWetlands Initiative, is published by the state’s Wetlands Restoration & Banking Program, (617) 626-1177. Though the focus is on Massachusetts, much of the information can be applied region-wide. Topics include how to develop a plan for a project, build community support, raise funding and obtain permits and approvals. The guide also contains an excellent wetlands restoration primer.

Rebuilding the Ecosystem of North Mill Pond by Raymond A. Konisky, David M. Burdick and Frederick T. Short, is a detailed case study following the successful restoration of the New Hampshire estuary over several years. The study discusses the role of citizen involvement and the many challenges of restoring a severely degraded and complicated system. For a copy contact Heather Talbot at the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory, (603) 862-2175.