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Two
Friends of Scarborough Marsh Restoration Projects Receive U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and FishAmerica Foundation Funds
In the News
Contact:
Susan DeWitt Wilder 207-883-6050,
Friends of Scarborough Marsh
Lois Winter, Conservation Biologist/Outreach Specialist
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Gulf of Maine Coastal Program
207-781-8364 or lois_winter@fws.gov
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Gulf of
Maine Coastal Program recently announced $35,000 jointly awarded
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and FishAmerica Foundation
to help implement two important salt marsh restoration projects
in Scarborough Marsh Wildlife Management Area.
On behalf of locally-based Friends of Scarborough
Marsh, Gulf of Maine Coastal Program staff successfully applied
for these funds that will provide partial funding for the
restoration of the Nonesuch River section of the Marsh and
for Phragmites management and control operations throughout
Scarborough Marsh. Both projects will benefit native salt
marsh plants and animals, including furbearing mammals, migratory,
feeding and roosting waterbirds, and fish ranging in size
from mosquito-eating mummichogs and sticklebacks to sport
fish like striped bass and American shad.
Both of these salt marsh restoration projects,
which involve active coordination with a variety of federal,
state and local partners, restoration contractors and environmental
consultants, are described below:
Nonesuch Salt Marsh Restoration
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/FishAmerica Foundation
funds: $15,000 / Total cost: $126,000
This project will restore a 250-acre section of the Nonesuch
River salt marsh, the largest sub-watershed within the 3,100
acres Scarborough Marsh Wildlife Management Area. Restoration
work is designed to improve the hydrologic function and
ecological vitality of the marsh by:
• Breaching an abandoned road in 15 locations. Breaching
the road will eliminate a significant barrier to saltwater
flow over the marsh and remove sections of the elevated
berm that invite the establishment of Phragmites.
• Installing earthen ditch plugs in strategic locations
to prevent excessive draining of the salt marsh through
the ditches. The ditch plug material will be taken from
breached sections of the berm that are free of Phragmites.
• Controlling Phragmites with herbicide, followed
by mowing and mulching of dead remains.
Invasive Species Control and Native Saltmarsh Habitat
Restoration Project
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/FishAmerica Foundation funds:
$20,000 / Total cost: $100,000
This project will focus on the removal and reduction of
non-native and invasive Phragmites in sections of the 3,100-acre
Scarborough Marsh where sizeable patches pose the greatest
threat of overtaking the Marsh -- such as Libby River, along
Route 1, Prouts Neck and Stuart Brook. Specific distribution
of funds will be based on highest priority needs and opportunities
for positive impact. Partners propose to control Phragmites
first and foremost, by addressing the causes of habitat
degradation, which encouraged the establishment of the invasive
plant in the first place. Therefore, prime control techniques
will include replacing undersized culverts, breaching man-made
berms and installing ditch plugs. In some cases, an approved
herbicide will be selectively applied to Phragmites by a
licensed applicator, dead Phragmites will be mowed and mulched,
and excessive peat material or fill that unnaturally raises
the surface of the marsh may be removed. Controlling the
spread of Phragmites will help maintain native biodiversity
of plants, fish and wildlife, and will help maintain the
biological productivity of the marsh.
Partners involved in both of these important Scarborough
Marsh restoration efforts include: Friends of Scarborough
Marsh, Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Natural
Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Gulf of Maine Coastal Program, Ducks Unlimited, Maine Corporate
Wetlands Restoration Partnership, National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation and Maine Audubon Society, as well as environmental
consulting firms and restoration contractors.
If you know of other potential opportunities
to restore hydrology of salt marshes for the benefit of migratory
birds, native fish, and native salt marsh vegetation, contact
Sandra Lary at Gulf of Maine Coastal Program at 207-781-8364.
Sandra and other USFWS staff biologists are available to review
preliminary restoration concept or proposal, provide technical
support and biological advice, suggest monitoring needs, and
discuss outreach and potential funding opportunities.
The Friends of the Scarborough Marsh is a private
nonprofit organization working in collaboration with federal
and state agencies and other private and public organizations
to conserve and restore the Scarborough Marsh.
The Friends studies the challenges and potential
for marsh restoration, and undertakes salt marsh restoration
and monitoring projects, land conservation initiatives and
public education.
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