A restoration project was undertaken in 2004 to restore the 350-acre salt marsh in the lower Mill Brook watershed. In February 2005, Friends of Scarborough Marsh was awarded a grant to conduct Water Quality Testing in Mill Brook. >>The report is now available.
The Friends of Scarborough Marsh collaborated with several partners to restore natural salt marsh conditions in the 350-acre Mill Brook portion of the Scarborough Marsh. A new report on the findings of pre- and post-restoration monitoring studies conducted between 2003 and 2009 is now available. >>MORE
Restoration Project #3 After several years of assessment, planning and coordination by local volunteers, and multiple state and federal natural resource managers, Mill Brook, a 381-acre section of Scarborough Marsh Wildlife Management Area was restored in 2005. Mill Brook salt marsh had been degraded by man-made ditches and upland land uses. Ditches were first constructed in the 1600s to facilitate the growth of salt hay by farmers, and additional ditches were dug in the 1960s, in a misguided attempt to reduce mosquito populations. Drainage ditches reduced the biological vitality of the salt marsh by limiting the frequency and duration of salt water wettings by the tides. Land-use activities on nearby uplands, including housing developments and golf courses, also negatively impacted Mill Brook by concentrating polluted freshwater run-off on the marsh surface. In recent years, Phragmites, a highly invasive plant, also appeared in Mill Brook.
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RESTORATION
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