8 Square Miles Of FWS Blackwater Refuge In MD Now Open Water; Salt Marsh Rescue Attempt Under Way
The view from the observation deck over a meadow of brown marsh grasses would make a nice postcard. Eagles roost on tall pines, muskrats burrow in mounds of mud and straw, and black ducks splash in a pond.
But on a cold and drizzly day, Matt Whitbeck surveys the landscape with concern. Beyond the marsh is what the Fish and Wildlife Service biologist calls "Lake Blackwater." "It's this beautiful body of open water," he says. "When you really start to think about why this is here, it's disturbing." The area was once an uninterrupted prairie of aquatic grasses. But waters have risen more than a foot over the past century, drowning the native plants and converting nearly eight square miles of marsh into open water.
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The changes started with Swiss cheese-like gaps in the marsh, as floods gradually overwhelmed the flowering bulrush, cordgrass (more commonly known as salt marsh hay) and other grasses. Those grass varieties evolved to handle the monthly high tides that come with every full moon, but they can't survive for long if their roots are waterlogged. The flooding stunts the growth of their roots and limits the buildup of peat — soil-like gunk made of decaying plants — that forms the marsh floor.
Curson said the changes are obvious even before marshland gives way to open water. On annual bird-counting surveys, he has grown used to taking a step through marsh grass only to suddenly find himself waist-deep in mud. During last year's count, he said, it happened something like five times more often than in the past. "I could feel that the root mats had disintegrated that much more," he said.
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-blackwater-marsh-restoration-20161231-story.html
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