Smith Island, Maryland
Environmental Restoration and Protection Project

Project Background:
The Baltimore District, in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Somerset County, has developed a plan for environmental restoration on Smith Island. The restoration efforts are focused on the northern half of the island that comprises the Martin National Wildlife Refuge. During the feasibility study, it was determined that the tremendous loss of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) around parts of Smith Island could be stopped and, to an extent, reversed by protecting and restoring lost wetlands in the Martin National Wildlife Refuge. Therefore, the project includes construction of offshore, segmented breakwaters to protect or recreate strategic areas along the coastline of the Refuge. In many areas, the breakwaters will be back-filled using borrow material from the Bay bottom west of the Island. This back-fill will create additional wetland habitat and greatly increase the effectiveness of the structures. The recommended project includes restoration of Back Cove and Fog Point Cove using stone breakwaters and backfill, and protection of the western shoreline of the Martin Wildlife Refuge using breakwaters and backfill from the northern jetty near Ewell to Fog Point. Over a 50-year project life, these projects will restore or protect approximately 1,900 acres of SAV and restore or protect 240 acres of wetlands.

This project is a result of the Smith Island, Maryland, Environmental Restoration feasibility study that was commenced in June 1998. Other projects from that study include the Tylerton Shoreline Protection Project, implemented under Section 510 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1996, and the Rhodes Point small navigation project, being implemented under Section 107 of the River and Harbor Act of 1960, as amended.

Project History:
Smith Island, Maryland’s last inhabited Chesapeake Bay island not connected by a bridge to the mainland, is located 12 miles west of Crisfield, Maryland, 95 miles south of Baltimore, and straddles the Maryland-Virginia state line. The island is populated by a unique culture of watermen descended from the original settlers of 350 years ago. Smith Island is part of a chain of islands that form the border between Chesapeake Bay and Tangier Sound, and is comprised of 97-percent emergent wetlands. The study area is within the largest contiguous SAV bed in the Bay. Although SAV coverages have been rebounding in the last decade throughout the Bay, the Tangier Sound area has seen continual decreases in coverage. In its entirety, Smith Island has lost over 3,300 acres of wetlands in the last 150 years, and, in the identified project areas alone, it lost almost 2,400 acres of SAV between 1992 and 1998.

Status:
The project has been approved by the Chief of Engineers and awaits authorization from Congress. Pre-construction Engineering and Design (PED) efforts were completed in July 2003.  Construction will begin when project authorization and funding (Federal and non-Federal) are obtained.

Contact Us:
This web page is updated as needed. If you request additional information on this subject, please email your request/question.  The appropriate Baltimore District team member will promptly respond to you.