Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Marsh Resiliency Wetlands
Cambridge, Maryland, United States
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (Blackwater) provides three major types of habitat— forest, marsh, and shallow water—to a wide variety of wildlife and plantlife. Since 1938, however, 5,000 acres of marsh has been lost. Models suggest that, as sea levels rise, virtually all of the preserve’s current tidal wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay could erode by the end of the 21st century. Since returning the area to its precolonial state would not be feasible, this wetland restoration project became a small part of the long-term strategy package developed by a partnership of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Baltimore District (NAB), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), The Conservation Fund, and Audubon Maryland-DC to ensure that Blackwater’s tidal wetlands endure. The project involved a process called thin-layer placement; this effort marked the first time the process was successfully executed in the Chesapeake watershed. In 2016, sediment dredged from the Blackwater River was placed at a deliberate thickness on 40 acres of marsh surface with the goal of raising the marsh surface to a level necessary for resiliency and for stimulating the growth of native marsh grasses. Based on its effectiveness, significance, and innovation, the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Marsh Resiliency project was designated runner-up in the 2017 American Society of Adaptation Professionals Prize for Progress in Adapting to Climate Change.
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