A salt marsh lives in delicate balance with the daily rise and fall of ocean tides. What happens to a salt marsh and its environs when the sea level rises and floods marshlands on a daily basis that once were flooded only by the occasional heavy storm tide? This is a question that residents of Scarborough will have to answer in the not-too-distant future. Fortunately, Scarborough Marsh is the beneficiary of a federal grant to research this question through the creation of a Marsh Migration Task Force.
A three-year project to control the invasive reed Phragmites australis in the Scarborough Marsh has achieved its goal of a 95% eradication rate in the areas treated under the program. The project was a collaboration among the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, the Friends of Scarborough Marsh, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Gulf of Maine Program, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, Ducks Unlimited, and Maine Audubon. Launched in August 2010, it involved a variety of actions utilizing highly specialized mowing equipment, licensed and trained contractors and application of a specially formulated herbicide that affects only plants.
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OUR MISSIONConserve, protect, restore, and enhance the Scarborough Marsh. BROWSE NEWS
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