Connecticut’s Dedication to Wetlands Restoration

Beginning in the 1800s, it became common practice in Connecticut to drain, dike, farm, develop, and otherwise alter tidal wetlands. For the past two decades, coastal resource managers in the state have aggressively made restoring these defiled estuarine ecosystems one of their top priorities.

Removing tide gates and replacing undersized culverts are some of the ways Connecticut has restored more than 60 separate wetlands. Photo courtesy of Connecticut Office of Long Island Sound Programs

“In developing our coastal management program in the early 70s,” says Ron Rozsa, coastal ecologist with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Office of Long Island Sound Programs, “one of the specific policies that was incorporated encourages restoration of degraded tidal wetlands. Basically this was the springboard for beginning our pursuit.”

Since then, over 60 separate sites have been restored along Connecticut’s coast, and the first dedicated Wetlands Restoration Unit in the country was established. Rozsa says the state has been able to make such progress by teaming with unique partners, developing a streamlined project review process, assigning a stable funding source, using good science, and exercising a great deal of patience.

Setting the Groundwork

Long Island Sound is a diverse estuary that straddles the border between coastal Connecticut and coastal New York. The fast pace of shoreline development in the first half of the 20th century destroyed an estimated 30 percent of Connecticut’s 17,500 acres of estuarine ecosystems.

Protection for salt marshes came in 1969 with the passage of the state’s Tidal Wetlands Act, which requires that development in the estuarine environment be consistent with all applicable state rules and statutes. Since then, wetlands losses in the state have averaged less than a quarter of an acre a year.

However, Rozsa says, wetlands that had already been degraded were left unaddressed. The Connecticut Coastal Management Act of 1980 changed that by establishing a policy to “encourage the restoration and rehabilitation of degraded tidal wetlands.” This act became the foundation for the tidal marsh restoration efforts of DEP’s Coastal Area Management Program, now the Office of Long Island Sound Programs.

The primary approach of DEP has been the restoration of tidal flow through tide-gate removal and replacement of undersized culverts, and then allowing Mother Nature to take her course. They have found, Rozsa says, that restoring tidal action to a salt marsh returns it to a fully functioning estuarine ecosystem over a period of five to 21 years.

This simple tactic, along with Connecticut’s experienced in-house staff and specialized equipment dedicated to tidal marsh restoration, allows the state to complete restoration projects at the lowest cost in all of New England.

Following the Science

Rozsa believes one of the reasons for the program’s success is DEP’s partnership with scientists at Connecticut College. This relationship was forged just prior to the adoption of the Coastal Management Act when the college’s scientists invited DEP staff to visit their New London campus to learn about their wetlands research.

“This laid the early groundwork for the management/science partnership, which continues to this day,” Rozsa says.

In the early 80s, DEP provided the college with a small grant to investigate a series of identified wetlands and make recommendations on what measures were needed to restore them. Since then, the agency has been “systematically restoring the marshes on that list,” Rozsa notes.

Connecticut College also has worked with DEP to research a selected series of sites to assess restoration success, and then design and implement new projects.

The Buzz of Success

One of the most surprising and successful partnerships, Rozsa says, was between DEP and the state’s Mosquito Control Unit.

Beginning after the Civil War, virtually all salt marshes adjacent to the Sound were altered by a variety of mosquito control activities. Wetlands of all types were filled, ditched, or drained using tide gates to prevent mosquito breeding. By the 1940s, nearly all of Connecticut’s salt marshes were ditched.

In 1984, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took enforcement action against the mosquito control program, and the agency turned to DEP to get permits to continue mosquito control using modern techniques such as open marsh water management and to restore tidal flow to degraded marshes.

“It was a revelation to learn that tidal flow restoration to subsided marsh abated all mosquito breeding and so restoration was embraced by Mosquito Control as a strategic mosquito control technique,” Rozsa says.

Over the next eight years, Mosquito Control’s dedicated staff implemented numerous marsh restoration projects. By 1993, however, the Department of Health Services could no longer fund the mosquito control program, so DEP made an agreement to transfer staff and equipment, allowing it to create a dedicated wetlands restoration program.

Rozsa notes that funding primarily comes from federal grants and support. This would be more difficult, he says, without a dedicated state wetlands restoration fund, which is used to match federal monies.

Refining the Process

Another key, Rozsa says, has been creating a team to approach each project. This, along with the success of the restoration efforts, has resulted in state and federal regulators streamlining the permitting process.

“Since the earliest restoration projects in Connecticut,” Rozsa notes, “we never tried to make decisions about the final restoration design independently. We always had a site review committee.”

Coastal managers, scientists, nonprofits, and state and federal regulators are brought into the process early to help design the “best restoration project based on everyone’s collective input.” This review allows federal and state regulators to simplify the permitting process, which means more projects get completed.

The Big Picture

As a result of DEP’s efforts, more than 1,700 acres of Connecticut’s tidal wetlands have been restored.

“I want to emphasize what Connecticut has is a wetlands restoration program, not a plan,” Rozsa says. “Although it has planning elements, it’s a program that consists of dedicated staff, a permitting process that’s been streamlined, and dedicated funding… Plans are nice, but the day they are printed, they are already out of date.”

He adds, “The lesson we’ve learned is to be patient. You can accomplish the same goals over longer periods of time at a lower cost, if you’re patient… One needs to think on geologic terms, not on human time frames.”

For more information on Connecticut’s tidal marsh restoration program, contact Ron Rozsa at (860) 424-3616, or ron.rozsa@po.state.ct.us. or visit http://camel2.conncoll.edu/ccrec/greennet/arbo/ublications/34/MAIN.HTM.

Source: Coastal Services, March/April 2003