Greater Boston’s last remaining salt marsh is in danger. Again.
The marsh is facing a dual threat: the impact of climate change and the lack of public awareness about the vital role this patch of nature plays. Greater Boston's last remaining salt marsh, Belle Isle Marsh, is under threat due to climate change and lack of public awareness about its vital role. The marsh, which provides a habitat for birds such as the saltmarsh sparrow, is also shrinking, pushing the species dangerously close to extinction. A volunteer-led group of residents, Friends of Belle Isle, have fought for the area's survival and protection for decades and are now increasing their efforts to turn visitors’ appreciation into advocacy. The group is using newly acquired grant funding from the Municipality Vulnerability Preparedness program to advance its goals and is actively fundraising to raise more funds. The salt marsh also serves a valuable protective function as a place to absorb rainwater to help East Boston and neighboring Revere and Winthrop from flooding.
gepubliceerd : 3 weken geleden door Emilia Wisniewski in Environment Science
But the marsh is now facing a dual threat: the impact of climate change and lack of public awareness about the vital role this patch of nature plays. As sea levels rise and more intense and frequent storms hit the marsh, the critical habitat for birds such as the saltmarsh sparrow is also shrinking, pushing the species dangerously close to extinction.
Belle Isle Marsh, in the shadow of Logan Airport, is a place for nature lovers to stroll through trails and grasslands, cross over streams, and look for osprey, egrets, and the endangered saltmarsh sparrow, along with some 260 other species of birds. The marsh also serves a valuable protective function — a place to absorb rainwater to help prevent East Boston and neighboring Revere and Winthrop from flooding.
Walk past a fire department, an auto body shop, and Napoles Italian restaurant in heavily urbanized East Boston, then hang a right — suddenly, the cars, the traffic, and congestion are gone, and you find yourself in the last remaining salt marsh in Greater Boston.
A volunteer-led group of residents — the Friends of Belle Isle Marsh — have fought for the area’s survival and protection for decades and are now ramping up their efforts to turn visitors’ appreciation into advocacy.
“You’re not going to protect something that you don’t appreciate,” said Kannan Thiruvengadam, the president of Friends of Belle Isle Marsh. The group is using newly acquired grant funding from the Municipality Vulnerability Preparedness program — $50,000 — to advance its goals and is actively trying to raise more funding.
That grant is helping pay for new signage — in both English and Spanish — to let people in East Boston know about the hidden gem on the outskirts of the city, as well as for informational markers along the reservation’s gravel trail for families to learn more about the marsh.
Then there’s the person-to-person outreach. On a recent Saturday, Friends of Belle Isle hosted an educational tour and bird walk, providing attendees with binoculars to get a better look at easier-to-find species such as ospreys and red-winged blackbirds. These events are hosted regularly to promote visits and hopefully spur action to protect the land.
Thiruvengadam said activities like this are critical because most people take Belle Isle for granted, and inaction could spell its demise.
“We think it’ll be here no matter what, but it won’t because of so many different risks that are in motion at this time,” Thiruvengadam said. “If something isn’t done to counter those forces, this will be gone.”
Salt marshes also play a critical role absorbing and storing carbon dioxide in the ground, keeping greenhouse gases that cause climate change out of the atmosphere. A project out of Boston University is now collecting this data with sensors at the East Boston marsh. Lena Champlin, a postdoctoral fellow in the Earth and Environment Department at BU and researcher on the project, said the team is collecting data in several marshes across New England.
“I hope that these sensors that we’re designing will be accessible to people so they will be able to use them to answer their own questions about the salt marsh, which I think is really important,” Champlin said.
The fight to preserve the marsh goes back decades. Bird watchers began going to Belle Isle Marsh in the 1930s, attracted by so many species so close to heavily urbanized areas. But the site was highly contaminated, used as a dumping ground for dredged materials.
In the 1950s, the reservation became an outdoor drive-in movie theater.
Then in the 1960s, the marsh came under further threat when Massport launched expansion plans for Logan Airport and wanted to convert the area into an oil tanker terminal.
Residents came together to fight that plan. After an environmental health study and a change in leadership at the State House, Governor Michael Dukakis’s new executive director of Massport, David Davis, shelved the expansion idea.
In the 1980s, Friends of Belle Isle was formed. Gail Miller was one of the original members and said she remembers discovering the spot after being struck by seeing an egret near an MBTA station.
“We were all captivated, just by these, what we thought were, exotic birds in the city,” Miller said. “Who knew any of this?”
The Department of Conservation and Recreation eventually acquired the land then opened it to the public in 1986.
Since the acquisition, DCR has carefully preserved habitats through regular observation and upkeep. But the salt marsh has remained largely untouched because it’s a “very fragile habitat,” said Sean Riley, the former manager of Belle Isle Marsh at DCR. “We’re looking at how we can prolong the life of our marshes, looking at low-impact restoration interventions that will fix some of the historic and anthropogenic problems that have occurred.”
In the years that followed DCR’s acquisition, more groups joined to help preserve the marsh, including the Mystic River Watershed Association. On a recent weekend, the association gathered volunteers to pull out garlic mustard, an invasive plant that grows quickly in the spring.
“It’s always nice to remove invasive species because they’re harmful to native plants,” said volunteer LiChen Wang, of Medford. “It’s a good way to relax mentally and it’s also good for the environment.”
Friends of Belle Isle vice president Justi Santana said visiting the area is like regenerative “therapy” for people in surrounding communities. “A way to connect with nature and recover from urban development projects in the area.”
The organization is just hoping that feeling catches on with more people to help preserve the marsh.
Emilia Wisniewski can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @emiliaxski.
Onderwerpen: Environment-ESG