Posted on February 14, 2017
By Matthew Enright, The Independent
The first phase of salt marsh restoration at the John H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge in Narragansett started Nov. 21 and was completed in late January.
The project is being undertaken by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy in conjunction with groups like the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council.
“Rhode Island has a dredging window that ends on Jan. 31,” Tim Mooney, marketing and communications manager for The Nature Conservancy, said in an interview. “So the dredging portion within the Narrow River estuary was completed right up through that deadline, the evening of Jan. 31.”
The dredging project was unusual for a number of reasons, including the shallow level of water in the estuary between Middlebridge and Sprague Bridge as well as the nature of the natural resources. In addition, equipment had to be transported to Narragansett and some of the equipment and machinery had to be custom made.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind project, so there was a lot of custom design and on-site re-engineering of the equipment, and we were lucky to have some great people on the ground at the Fish and Wildife Service and CRMC and our contractor who understood what we were trying to achieve, and was willing to work with us to problem solve and troubleshoot on site,” Mooney said. “It all ended up working out really well.”
The project also used 3,000 bags of clam and oyster shells to protect the deteriorating edges and serve as a wall to hold water on the marsh.
“It’s something that the Conservancy has experimented with in the past couple of years,” Mooney said. “With this project, we’ve taken it to a little bigger scale.”
The shells are also used to line out historic edges of the marsh and back-filled with sand from the dredging.
Approximately 24,000 cubic yards of sand were moved by dredging for restoration purposes, thanks to equipment that was used for the first time in the United States. The material, now sitting on portions of the salt marsh to dry out, will be worked with by contractor SumCo Eco-Contracting to elevate areas of the marsh to help withstand the impact of sea-level rise and coastal storm surges, as well as promote the growth of eel grass and create deeper channels for cool water refuges for fish.
SumCo has previously worked with The Nature Conservancy on a project at Sachuest Point Naional Wildlife Refuge in Middletown.
“This contractor is experienced with moving sand at very precise elevations across a salt marsh,” Mooney said. “We’re very confident in the success of the next phase of that process.”
The next phase, which will attempt to create ideal elevations of up to 6 inches, is expected to be started and finished in March, though the work is weather dependent.
“We predict it won’t be able to happen every day,” Mooney said. “The sand is sitting on top of the marsh and drying out so the contractor can work with it. If we had a big storm, if we had several days of rain in a row, then the drying out process gets set back and they would have to hold off.”
After phase two ends, the next phase will be to replant portions of the salt marsh.
Source: The Independent
