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Monday, July 5, 2004
Project aims to reverse damage from old ditches
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||
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The demand for salt hay died out decades ago in Scarborough. But the hand-dug channels built to help harvest the once-popular commodity remain in Maine's largest salt marsh. Stewards of Scarborough Marsh view this network of trenches that dates back to the 1800s as an environmental problem. A restoration project due to start this summer will try to reverse more than a century of damage the ditches have done to plant and animal life. The work is the latest project in an extensive plan to restore the 3,100-acre marsh. "Man has manipulated the marsh in a variety of different ways that prevent it from performing naturally," said C. D. Armstrong, chairman of a local conservation group, Friends of Scarborough Marsh. The project, which is expected to cost $100,000, includes damming 25 ditches to prevent water from draining from sections of the marsh during low tide. Workers also will breach sections of a former hay road to improve water flow. The work will focus on a 500-acre section of the marsh at the mouth of Mill Brook. The project will slow the tide in certain sections of the marsh and keep others from becoming dry at low tide. The increased water table is expected to be a boon for fish, bird, plant and invertebrate life. The reductions in water, which the ditches cause, prevents this life from flourishing, says Philip Bozenhard, regional wildlife biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. "The marsh looks pretty simple, but when you get out there to do some projects it gets complicated," Bozenhard said. The improvement of marine life in sections of the marsh should attract migratory birds, from piping plovers to ducks, looking for food. It also will bring additional salt water into the marsh, helping to control invasive plants that thrive on water with a lower salinity. The project includes additional measures to kill non-indigenous plants such as Phragmites. The work this summer is the latest step in trying to turn back the history of the marsh. In the 1600s, the first settlers grazed animals on the edge of the marsh. And by the 1800s, a series of channels were dug to drain areas and mark the dividing line between the hay lots of farmers, according to Rebecca Delaware, president of the Scarborough Historical Society. Delaware says farmers believed salt hay provided additional nutrition for livestock. A modern study, however, showed animals like the taste because of its salt content, but the hay did not provide anything special in the way of nutrition, she says. "In that day, it had very high values" of salt, said Wayne Munroe, a district conservationist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. All that remains of the salt hay harvests besides the ditches is decaying wooden staddles - stakes on which hay was placed to dry it and prevent it from being ruined by rising tides. Munroe says the restoration project will not affect these historic remains. The work on ditches is part of a larger plan developed in 2002 to return the marsh to its natural state after centuries of use. A number of government agencies and conservation groups are funding the plan's projects, which could grow to as many as 40. The Mill Brook project is third in this long-term plan. Staff Writer Mark Peters can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:
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