Upcoming Habitat Enhancement at Great Meadows Unit of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge

Later this month, United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) employees will probably be conducting habitat enhancement on the Nice Meadows Unit of the Stewart B. McKinney Nationwide Wildlife Refuge positioned on Lengthy Seashore Blvd. in Stratford.

The work consists of connecting the saline pond that’s viewable from the pond path to a tidal channel positioned ~150ft to the south, inserting excavated fill within the areas of degraded marsh alongside the northern fringe of the marsh path, and replanting and reseeding disturbed areas with native vegetation. The work will end in improved tidal stream and water high quality, lowering the chance of illnesses that affect waterfowl (die offs occurred in 2021 and 2024). Each day flushing can even inhibit the unfold of the invasive reed, Phragmites australis.

As many will recall, 44 acres of the Nice Meadows unit had been the main focus of a big restoration challenge that broke floor in 2021. Undertaking companions embody USFWS, NOAA, the State of Connecticut, and the Nationwide Audubon Society. Whereas the work deliberate for this fall to attach the pond to a tidal channel was an choice talked about within the plan on which the general public had a possibility to remark, that choice was not pursued because of the curiosity in retaining a freshwater pond habitat on the web site.

Nonetheless, with the elimination of a berm that surrounded the restoration web site, which was finished to permit the marsh emigrate landward in response to sea degree rise and to provide estuarine turtles entry to nesting habitat, flooding throughout storms occasions has resulted in elevated salinity ranges within the pond.  Salinity ranges had been examined, each within the subject and laboratory testing, throughout the summer time of 2023 and assorted from 2.5 ppt (1-3 ppt is taken into account barely saline by the USGS) to 32.5 ppt (10-35 ppt is taken into account extremely saline, 35 ppt is sea water). The salinity varies relying on the time of the final over wash and up to date rainfall occasions. 

In step with greatest practices of adaptive administration, now {that a} freshwater pond habitat just isn’t an choice, all companions at the moment are supportive of connecting the pond to the close by creek to handle invasive reeds and waterfowl illnesses. Permits from CT Dept of Power and Environmental Safety and Military Corps of Engineers are already in place.

This work will start on Monday Sept. twenty ninth and conclude on Thursday Oct. 2nd. Throughout this era, the car parking zone on Lengthy Seashore Blvd will stay open. The paths will shut briefly when USFWS employees are transferring gear. It’s anticipated that when one path is closed, the opposite will probably be open. 

Following these actions, the pond will probably be about 1/3 the dimensions at low tide however fill to the present perimeter at excessive tide. Disturbance alongside the south facet of the pond will probably be non permanent, with newly planted and seeded areas filling in over the course of the subsequent 12 months or two. 

The Nice Meadows Marsh challenge has restored the world to as pure a system as doable, lowering the abundance of mosquitoes and vector borne illnesses, bettering visibility for birding and different leisure alternatives, and proving beneficial habitat for Saltmarsh Sparrow (which has declined by 87% since 1998 in accordance with the Atlantic Coast Joint Enterprise Saltmarsh Sparrow Conservation Plan) and different salt marsh obligates.

We respect the curiosity the general public has taken within the work deliberate for this fall and the feedback that now we have obtained. Nonetheless, the companions really feel that rising tidal stream out and in of the pond is greatest for the world long run. 

These with further feedback are welcome to succeed in out to the beneath e-mail addresses:

• Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe—Director of Chook Conservation, Audubon Connecticut (email)
• Richard Potvin—Refuge Supervisor, Stewart B. McKinney Nationwide Wildlife Refuge (email)