Tidal marshes have developed at the interface of marine and terrestrial systems where physical and biological processes interact. Feedback between saltwater flooding, plant productivity, and the oxidation / storage of the reduced plant carbon allows marshes to grow with sea level rise. Mosquito ditching, once a widespread practice across New England, results in over-draining and oxidation of the marsh foundation - peat, but it also leaves spoil piles that can impound small marsh areas, resulting in loss of vegetation caused by waterlogging. By ditching, human interference with the natural marsh hydrology has left managers with a paradox: both drained areas and impounded areas subside in elevation and serve to reduce resilience as sea levels rise. At Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, our team has been piloting and documenting new techniques that use natural hydrologic forcing to cause ditches to become shallow and re-vegetate panels of high marsh. Our results suggest that our approach will rebuild some of the natural capital lost due to ditching in the Great Marsh.

Dr. David Burdick is Research Associate Professor of Coastal Ecology and Restoration in the Department of Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire, where he has taught wetlands courses over the past eighteen years. In 1988, he received a doctorate in Marine Sciences at LSU in Baton Rouge. His study of coastal science spans 35 years, concentrating on coastal ecosystems, assessing human impacts, and planning, implementing and assessing habitat restoration at the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory, where he serves as Interim Director. In 2012 he won the Susan Snow-Cotter Visionary Award from the Gulf of Maine Council for the Marine Environment for his efforts to restore vitally important habitats and reconnect people to benefit from them. He recently published a book with Charles Roman to translate and extend lessons learned from tidal restoration of salt marshes in the Northeast US and Canada.