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The Chesapeake Bay Coastal Program and its partners completed restoration of a 35-acre salt marsh salt marsh
Salt marshes are found in tidal areas near the coast, where freshwater mixes with saltwater.
Learn more about salt marsh (鈥淟angmaid鈥�) in Worcester County, Maryland approximately 20 miles south of Ocean City. The Coastal Program collaborated with Western Maryland Conservation and Development Council, Maryland Coastal Bays Program, Sovereign Consulting to design and restore this site to reestablish tidal connectivity.
Restoring this salt marsh through excavation of runnels and channels will improve coastal resiliency and restore habitat for marsh-dependent birds such as salt marsh sparrow and Eastern black rail. Prior research has found that installing targeted runnels and channels is a low-tech, low-cost approach to relieve waterlogging and promote revegetation by restoring tidal hydrology. To increase efficiency and economize on planning and construction costs, biologists used data from a similar project constructed in 2024.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund Grant, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and others provided funding for this project.
