USGS National Wetlands Research Center: Marsh Restoration

Marsh Restoration

Management and restoration of marshes are methods proposed for slowing coastal marsh loss. Major components of marsh management are altering water levels, manipulating burning regimes, managing grazing animals, controlling water quality entering areas, and influencing effects of tidal flows. Manipulating water levels is believed to be the overriding factor in determining wetland character and integrity.

"Structural marsh management" is the use of dikes, natural landscape features, and water control structures to give human control of water movement in an area. This technique is an old one, having been practiced for over two centuries; however, the full range of consequences is still poorly understood.

The National Wetlands Research Center is working collaboratively with a cadre of Federal agencies, private landowners, and universities to conduct studies on effects of managed marshes on ecological functions and processes. In an active study, eight study areas are located in the deltaic plain of coastal Louisiana, the site of the fastest rate of land loss in North America. Four of the study areas are being managed and four are being left unaltered. Comparisons of land loss, plant growth, fish use, bird use, sediment movement, water levels and salinity, as well as soil chemistry have produced dozens of scientific presentations and many papers in refereed scientific journals. These findings continue to be published and are useful to land managers seeking to conserve coastal marshes.

Research

Effects of Marsh Impoundment and Management on the Plant Growing Environment of Louisiana's Deltaic Wetlands (Dr. Rebecca J. Howard)
Waterfowl and Wading Bird Response to Marsh Management in Southeastern Louisiana (Dr. Thomas C. Michot)
Native Plants for Effective Coastal Wetland Restoration (Dr. Rebecca Howard)

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