By Patricia Houser
For Nature’s Sake
Patricia Houser
Salt marshes are defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as “coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by salt water brought in by the tides.” Examples of these landscapes in Milford include Gulf Pond, Calf Pen Meadow and the 500-plus acre Charles E. Wheeler Marsh at Milford Point, all places that locals may associate with sightings of exotic-looking birdlife.
With their combination of smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) and mud and peat soils, salt marshes in Milford and elsewhere along Connecticut’s coast are also attracting attention for their capacity to protect human life and property in extreme weather events, filter pollutants and nurture an extraordinary diversity of aquatic and other species. In a time of urgent need to reduce warming gases in the atmosphere, salt marshes do their part by absorbing and storing carbon.
For a quick introduction to these essential landscapes, consider the short self-test below:
Questions:
1. True/False: An acre of salt marsh absorbs and stores more carbon (removing it from the atmosphere) than an acre of rain forest.
2. Fill in the blank: Salt marshes provide essential food, refuge, or nursery habitat for more than _______ of commercial fish and shellfish, including shrimp, blue crab, and many finfish.
a)25%
b)50%
c)75%
3. An invasive plant currently encroaching on Milford’s and other Connecticut salt marshes is a tall reed species called Phragmites. According to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, difficulties caused by Phragmites in our marshes include…
a)They increase fire hazards because of the percent of dead, dry, stalks in Phragmites stands.
b) Phragmites generally provides poor habitat for wildlife.
c) Phragmites grass has little nutritional value compared to native grasses.
d) All of the above.
4. Fill in the blank: salt marshes provide nearly ______________ of value per square mile during storms by reducing the impacts of surge and flooding.
a) $7,000
b) $70,000
c) $700,000
5. According to the EPA, roughly 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands in the US are lost each year, the equivalent of close to seven football fields every hour. Which of the following factors contribute to those losses?
a) Coastal development
b) Polluted runoff
c) Sea level rise
d) All of the above
Answers:
1. According to pewtrusts.org, “Salt marshes and coastal wetlands sequester and store carbon at a rate 10 times that of mature tropical forests.”
2. 75%. The US Fish and Wildlife Service notes that commercial and recreational aquatic life supported by salt marshes are part of a multi-billion-dollar industry.
3. d. All of the above. While it can be challenging, DEEP also offers steps for controlling Phragmites.
4. c. $700,000, according to a 2020 study and pewtrusts.org.
5. d. All of the above. In Connecticut, according to the NOAA website, fast-paced development in the first half of the 20th century destroyed about 30 percent of the state’s 17,500 acres of estuarine ecosystems. However, today, in the wake of protective legislation in the 1960s and 1980s, wetlands losses in Connecticut have come to average less than a quarter acre per year. There is some question of how that might be affected by, among other things, sea level rise.
Among recent triumphs in salt marsh restorations in our part of Connecticut is the project to restore a part of the Great Meadows Marsh in Stratford. Work began in 2021 and the marsh now features a refurbished trail and two new viewing platforms that attract hikers and birdwatchers. On the national scale, in January 2024 the federal government announced the launch of a “Salt Marsh Keystone Initiative,” aimed, in part, according to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, “to help to protect the more than 44 million Americans who live on the Atlantic Coast from coastal flooding” and “safeguard important wildlife, such as the salt marsh sparrow.”
For local governments, neighborhoods and residents who have the most direct impact on local salt marshes, the DEEP has created the online “Tidal Wetlands Guidance” manual – a must-read, highly useful document for any resident in a town with salt marshes. Specific warnings for individuals and homeowners in marsh areas include, “Only walk through high marsh areas in dry conditions,” “refrain from removing any wetland soil,” and “do not place watercraft or any structures upon areas of tidal wetlands.”
In its suggestions for municipalities, DEEP’s coastal wetlands manual stresses the need to limit impervious (paved) surfaces, leave undeveloped strips of land (buffer zones) between wetlands and developments, and include guidelines for fertilizer use and other lawn treatments in a citywide ordinance. Schools and other institutions that border on salt marshes can use the DEEP manual too as an opportunity for learning and good stewardship.
For a final note on the treasures in our salt marshes, I reached out to Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation at Connecticut Audubon, who also grew up next to Wheeler’s Marsh. When the director was asked to reflect on why such familiar landscapes can still evoke a sense of wonder for him, he said,“Almost every time I visit the marsh, there’s something new and something wonderful that unfolds – whether it’s late March, when the waterfowl are in the marsh by the thousands and 10 or 12 different species are using the marsh as a stopping point, where every creek is flooded with different birds: black ducks, and mallards, and wigeon, and golden eyes, etc. – to this time of the year, in the fall, when everything is golden and fresh and all the migrant birds are moving south–from the clapper rails, to the long-legged waders and saltmarsh sparrows.”