A public information session will be held on May 3 to discuss a new restoration project of Scarborough Marsh.
At 6:30 p.m. at the Natural Resource Conservation Service office on Route 1, anyone is welcome to come and learn about the $78,000 project that will take place over the next few years.
According to C.D. Armstrong of the Friends of Scarborough Marsh, the Natural Resource Conservation Service is paying $35,000 to $40,000 of the cost of the project and will work along with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maine Audubon, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Service and other environmental agencies. The Rhode Island based company RC&D has been contracted to complete the restoration project.
The meeting on May 3 will detail exactly what the project will entail, but the overall goal is to improve the hydrology of the area just upstream from Black Point Road bridge over the Nonesuch River. Armstrong defined hydrology as a “more natural tide” that will help to improve things such as salinity levels and ground erosion.
One of the major problems the restoration project aims to correct are the growing numbers of invasive species, especially phragmites. These wheat-like plants are what cause the marsh to look more like fields than marshland.
“A lot of people don’t understand why phragmites are a problem,” said Armstrong. “There’s a lot of money being spent, but if phragmites are left they will overtake the marsh.” The worry is that the marsh would someday become impenetrable to the natural marsh species.
As Armstrong said, without the phragmites “a whole range of critters will do better.”
The information session is intended to teach the public about how and why money is spent on this latest project.
Public information session for marsh restoration
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