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A dedicated group of local partners, the Cousins River Marsh Collaborative, has been working together with the goal to restore and protect the Cousins River Marsh, a system that is heavily impacted by historical agricultural embankments and ditches. These features disrupted the natural flow of water in the marsh and has led to water pooling for long periods of time, which kills vegetation, lowers the marsh elevation, and degrades wildlife habitat.
In 2023, with support from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant, the Town of Yarmouth, and many generous private donors, Maine Coast Heritage Trust acquired 82 acres to create Cousins River Fields and Marsh Preserve. This preserve abuts almost 200 acres of marsh and upland habitat protected by Freeport Conservation Trust.
In Spring 2025, two Collaborative land trust partners were awarded two grants, enabling marsh restoration work to begin. With the help of the Collaborative members and in partnership with the Town of Yarmouth and Maine Department of Transportation, 99 acres of the Cousins Marsh will be restored, with work aiming to begin by spring of 2026.
Before beginning the restoration, the Collaborative created a monitoring plan to document the current marsh conditions, which includes marsh vegetation monitoring, photo stations, water level monitoring, and bird surveys. This pre-restoration monitoring began in June and will be completed by the end of August. Monitoring will continue for several years, including during the project and after completion. Cousins River Marsh is identified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Atlantic Coast Joint Venture as a high priority marsh habitat for saltmarsh sparrow conservation, but it had not been monitored for birds in over 20 years and was predicted to have low saltmarsh sparrow presence.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service鈥檚 Gulf of Maine Coastal Program and the Maine Field Office assisted Maine Coast Heritage Trust in conducting bird surveys. Though rare, the survey team was excited to immediately discover several saltmarsh sparrows and an active nest in the restoration area. This data will help document the distribution of saltmarsh sparrows and inform marsh restoration plans.
In July, the Gulf of Maine Coastal Program and Maine Coast Heritage Trust finished the bird surveys, setting up the photo stations, completed the first round of vegetation surveys on the restoration sites and additionally scoped the areas for suitable takeoff locations for drone mapping that will be conducted in August by Gulf of Maine Coastal Program and will cover the entire Cousins Marsh. The Gulf of Maine Coastal Program will continue to provide technical assistance for monitoring, restoration implementation, and community outreach.
