If you find yourself thinking about the Neponset’s salt marshes, you just might conclude that they could use a little help. Even more than a little help! Land use along the Neponset River has had a lengthy and colorful history—from industrial to residential land use, commerce to quarrying, a variety of activities have taken place here. And these activities have affected the state of the salt marshes.

Now, if you were to expand your view to include all of Boston, you’d see that this whole region of salt marshes has dwindled since the arrival of European colonists more than 350 years ago. In fact, much of Boston’s marshes and the surrounding mud and sand flats were dredged or filled in the early 1800s to increase Boston’s acreage.

In this process, wildlife habitat was decimated -- along with the area's natural ability to process pollutants and tolerate storms. Young commercial fish species such as winter flounder, herring, clams, bay scallop, conch, dogfish shark, spiny shark and skate, dependent on salt marsh as a nursery, suffered, as did the bluefish and striped bass that use the marsh as a hunting ground. 

Fortunately, the revitalization of the Neponset Estuary salt marsh has begun. In the summer of 2005, the Great Meadows Farms contracting company, under the direction of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), began to restore 15 acres of salt marsh in the estuary of the Neponset River Reservation, bringing five years of wetland restoration planning to fruition.

Great Meadows Farms excavated tens of thousands of cubic yards of old dredge spoil deposits from the Neponset marsh, moving them elsewhere on-site. Years of dredge spoil deposition had raised the height of the marsh so much that salt water could no longer regularly flush the area. As a result, the salt marsh environment had slowly come to be dominated by plants less tolerant of salt water, such as the invasive Common reed (Phragmites australis), while native salt marsh plants like Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) and Saltmeadow cordgrass (Spartina patens) had declined.

By repositioning much of the dredge spoils, the contractor was able to lower the wetland’s elevation and add to an adjacent wooded upland. The lowered marsh elevation exposes the area to salt water, thereby encouraging the return of a healthy salt marsh ecosystem.

The contractor also breached dikes in the Neponset marsh, dug a new creek channel and planted Saltmeadow cordgrass along the new creek’s banks.

For the best view of the marsh restoration, visit Hutchinson’s Field in Milton, across from the Forbes House Museum on Adams Street. It may also be possible to view the project from the highway or from the Neponset Greenway. As the salt marsh restoration progresses, you’ll notice a shift from a yellow to a green hue in the marsh.

The Neponset salt marsh restoration project will take place in phases over the next several years. During that time, 20-25 more acres of marsh could be restored.

The Neponset salt marsh restoration project is being led by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, with assistance from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Office of Coastal Zone Management’s Wetland Restoration Program. Project funding has come from the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Project (CWRP). CWRP is a collaborative project between the MA Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Gillette Company, and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

To learn more about the Neponset salt marsh restoration project, contact Cathy Garnett, Neponset Planner with the DCR’s Planning & Engineering Department, at 617-626-1443 or catherine.garnett@state.ma.us.

For more information on this project, you can also visit the website of the Office of Coastal Zone Management, www.mass.gov/czm/wrp/education/currentupdate.htm.

January 2006