Researchers found in a recent study that, over the long term, bulkhead structures have a “significant negative effect” on marsh habitat size.

Using high-resolution imagery from 1981 of Carteret County’s Bogue and Back sounds and Newport and North rivers, the team measured the marsh extent, or total marsh area, at 45 sites with bulkheads and 45 natural sites, or those without the type of hardened structure. The 1981 measurements were then compared to the data from images collected in 1992, 2006 and 2013 of the same 90 sites.

The study found that all 45 bulkhead sites experienced marsh shoreline erosion during the 32-year study period, with complete marsh loss at 11% of the sites with bulkheads. More than 80% of the 45 natural marsh control sites experienced shoreline erosion, but at seven sites, around 15%, the marsh shoreline accreted waterward. None of the control sites experienced complete marsh loss.

“Our study found bulkheads nearly tripled the rate of marsh loss over a 32-year period. All of the 45 marshes we studied in front of a bulkhead got smaller or disappeared entirely,” Principal investigator Brandon Puckett explained to Coastal Review.

Puckett is a research marine biologist for the Coastal Resilience, Restoration and Assessment Branch in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, which partnered with Duke University and North Carolina Division of Coastal Management on the study.

“At the 45 natural marsh sites without bulkheads, the story was different. While many of them also eroded, more than a third actually held their ground or even grew by migrating inland into upland habitat. Bulkheads prevent marsh migration leading to a process known as ‘coastal squeeze’ whereby the marshes are not only eroding at the front edge, but are also blocked from migrating upland,” the Beaufort-based scientist said.

The study, “Bulkheads Reduce Salt Marsh Extent: A Multidecadal Assessment Using Remote Sensing,” was published this summer in the nonprofit Coastal Education and Research Foundation’s Journal of Coastal Research.

“Think of it this way,” Puckett continued. “Over the 32 years of our study — close to the length of a mortgage — the average marsh in front of a bulkhead lost about 15 feet of width. A natural marsh, on the other hand, lost only about 5 feet of width on average, because it could often make up for erosion by migrating upland.”

Of Carteret County’s 1,530 miles of estuarine shoreline, salt marsh accounts for about 1,270 miles, roughly 87 miles is hardened with bulkheads, and the remaining 11% is a different shoreline type or hardened structure other than bulkheads, like riprap.

The Division of Coastal Management, which is under the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, calls bulkheads the “most commonly used estuarine shoreline stabilization method” in the state “but could have deleterious impacts on the marsh habitats where they are being constructed.”

Factors contributing to the deterioration of salt marsh habitats include sea level rise and coastal development, which often result in hardened shoreline stabilization structures like bulkheads or seawalls constructed to protect against coastal hazards such as erosion, flooding and subsequent property damage, according to the study. “Concurrently, the many ecosystem services salt marshes provide, such as storm surge protection, carbon sequestration, improved water quality, and nursery habitat, are also diminishing.”

Authors state that the study is intended to offer a better understanding of how hardened shorelines like bulkheads “can have a significant negative effect on marsh extent through increased erosion of the waterward edge and prevention of landward migration with” sea level rise.

Why look at bulkheads and marsh loss?

Puckett told Coastal Review that the team decided to pursue the study after they realized they were “watching two powerful trends collide: the decline of essential marsh habitats and the increase in shoreline armoring,” provoking the question “’Is the solution to one shoreline erosion (bulkheads) actually making the other problem — marsh loss — worse?’”

He noted that scientists have long suspected that the hardened structures harm marshes but there wasn’t a lot of long-term data demonstrating these impacts. “We wanted to look back in time to objectively compare the long-term rates of change in marsh loss in locations with and without shoreline armoring.”

To get what Puckett called a “fair, apples-to-apples comparison,” the team “essentially became historical detectives” using the old aerial photographs, which were taken around low tide, when marsh shorelines were most visible. The study area was chosen because the historic aerial imagery was available.

They pored over the 1981 photos to find 45 locations where a fringe of salt marsh already existed with a bulkhead behind it. Then, for each of those 45 bulkhead sites, they located a nearby natural marsh without a bulkhead.

“We were careful to select control sites that were exposed to similar wave and wind conditions so that we were comparing like with like,” Puckett continued. “We meticulously traced the waterward and landward edges of the marsh at each site for each of the four imagery sets. By comparing these digital outlines over time, we could precisely measure both the erosion at the front of the marsh and its migration (or lack thereof) at the back.”

One of the more striking surprises from the study, Puckett said, is that the negative effects of bulkheads are almost invisible over shorter time spans.

“When we analyzed the data in smaller chunks — say, over a seven- to 14-year period — the difference in erosion rates between the bulkhead and natural sites wasn’t statistically significant. It was only by looking across the entire 32-year period that the dramatic, long-term impact became undeniable,” he said. It’s a true ‘death by a thousand cuts,’ and it tells us that short-term assessments can easily miss the entire story.”

The discovery also raises a new question about what’s driving erosion.

“We found that the fastest erosion rates occurred between 2006 and 2013, the period during our study with the highest rate of relative sea-level rise,” he said, “but not the stormiest from a tropical storm and hurricane perspective. This suggests that the constant, daily pressure of higher water levels might be a more powerful force in eating away at marsh edges than the occasional big storm, which challenges some common assumptions.”

‘Study is unique’

Authors state that this study is “the first to investigate the long-term impacts of structures on loss of marsh extent and provide useful information for better understanding the effects of shoreline hardening on salt marsh ecosystems,” which Puckett expounded on for Coastal Review.

“This study is unique for a few key reasons,” Puckett said. “Conceptually, we’ve known that bulkheads can expedite loss of marsh through reflecting wave energy and preventing migration, but this is one of the first studies to provide empirical evidence to support our conceptual understanding.”

The study analyzes more than 30 years of data, enabling the team to illustrate the slow, cumulative impacts that shorter studies could miss. “Environmental changes often don’t happen overnight, and this long-term view is critical,” he continued.

The research specifically focuses on what happens to the existing marsh that is left in front of a bulkhead, as well.

“Many people might think that as long as you leave some marsh, you’re preserving its function. Our work shows that while this may be true in the short-term, this leftover fringe marsh is often living on borrowed time because it can’t easily adapt to rising seas,” Puckett said.

And lastly, the team didn’t just measure erosion at the water’s edge, but also measured the movement of the landward boundary.

“This allowed us to calculate the net change in marsh area and definitively show that preventing landward migration is a critical factor that turns a shoreline erosion problem into a catastrophic loss of habitat. It’s this comprehensive look at both sides of the marsh over such a long period that is a unique component of this research,” he said.

Though disheartening, Puckett said it’s crucial to know that “this isn’t just a story about loss. It’s also a story about resilience and hope. The ‘good news’ from our study is that where marshes had space to move, they did.”

In the 45 natural sites studied, more than a third of the marshes were stable or even grew by migrating into upland habitats, both proving that marshes are naturally resilient and can adapt if given the room and pointing to a path forward to help address marsh erosion and migration.

“First, to combat erosion at the water’s edge, we can use living shorelines. Instead of hard walls, these solutions use natural materials like oyster reefs and native plants to slow wave energy while maintaining the vital intertidal connection between land and water. This helps preserve the marsh’s front edge. However, a marsh still may need room to move inland to adapt to sea-level rise,” Puckett said.

And a “second, equally critical part of the solution is to protect marsh migration corridors through land-use planning and conservation,” he added.

The corridors are undeveloped land set aside to allow marshes to move upland to survive rather than drowning in place.

“It is the combination of using living shorelines to reduce erosion and allowing for landward migration that can reduce the effects of coastal squeeze. We have a chance now to help protect our salt marshes that are the nurseries for our fisheries, our buffer from storm surge, and our natural water cleansers,” Puckett said.

There was a time when the distinctive “kiki-do” call of eastern black rails were a common sound rising up from North Carolina marshes.

Masters of secrecy, these little birds are rarely, if ever, seen.

They prefer to skirt through the marsh using tunnels dug by rabbits and other small mammals rather than take to the sky. Their nests are typically well concealed close to the ground in the highest part of brackish, saltwater and inland freshwater marshes.

But the habitat that eastern black rails so skillfully use to maintain their privacy is under growing threat from rising ocean waters, more powerful storms, and development and, if their numbers continue to decline, projections are they’ll disappear altogether within 35 years.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission aims to help these birds, putting forth a management plan to improve the black rails’ habitat by permanently protecting coastal marshes and assisting private landowners with potential habitat creation.

That’s going to take hundreds of acres of additional inland, shallow marsh and high-elevation coastal marsh.

“We think there’s probably less than 40 breeding pairs in North Carolina right now,” said Kacy Cook, a coastal waterbird biologist with the Wildlife Resources Commission.

The commission is accepting public comment on the Black Rail Management Plan through July 11.

The eastern black rail was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2020. The commission lists it as a species of greatest conservation need.

Long gone are the days when eastern black rails were documented in freshwater marshes in the North Carolina mountains and Piedmont. No one has heard their “kiki-do” in the interior part of the state since 2005, Cook said.

Once abundant black rail habitat along the North Carolina has been crowded out by houses, roads and farmed land.

The last remaining pockets of coastal areas where the birds are heard in some places in the Outer Banks (exact locations are kept under wraps to prevent human disturbance) and Cedar Island, an unincorporated area of Carteret County. Even there, surveys reveal a dramatic population decline.

Surveys are conducted throughout the black rails’ breeding cycle by using something called a targeted call-response where biologists play a recording of the “kiki-do” sound and wait for a response from black rails in the survey area.

“You used to be able to hear 70 black rail calling from the causeway,” at Cedar Island, Cook said.

Now, fewer than 10 respond at any given time, she said.

And while that’s not good for the eastern black rail, it’s also indicative of a wider coastal problem.

“Black rails are our signal that our coastal marshes and freshwater wetlands are in trouble, and that makes a difference for a lot of species, and our own wellbeing,” Cook said.

Eastern black rails rely on very shallow water levels in marshes. They have legs that are typically just over one inch long. Their fledglings, roughly the size of cotton balls, are out of the nest within 24 hours of hatching, but they’re not able to fly until about 40 days later.

This is why coastal storm flooding, exacerbated by sea level rise, is a particular threat, because flood waters can wash away the nests, eggs and chicks. One big storm could wipe out the remaining population in North Carolina.

“Those are happening at a rate that is too high for their population to grow,” Cook said.

Lack of fire, which is crucial to maintaining that type of habitat, and agricultural practices that include cutting field borders where black rails like to settle among wet, tall, grassy habitat, are further degrading the birds’ habitat.

“I’m only finding black rails where we have high herbaceous plant diversity. They only use habitats that are very dense herbaceous cover, grasses and flowers with few shrubs and no trees,” Cook said.

The commission’s management plan for black rails includes the creation and restoration of 600 acres of freshwater marsh and 600 acres of additional high-elevation coastal march by 2056.

“What we do for black rails will benefit all of the marsh birds that we have now, including the egrets and the herons and the wood storks. So, working on restoring black rail habitat is going to benefit all of our coastal birds in some way and our seafood. Seventy-five percent of our seafood comes from coastal marshes,” Cook said.

Update March 3: North Carolina Coastal Federation has extended the early bird pricing at $125 through March 8 for the 2025 Coastal Summit scheduled for April 8-9 in Raleigh. Starting March 9, price will increase to $150. The original end date for the $25 discount was March 1.

Original post Feb. 11:

Registration is now open for a two-day summit taking place in Raleigh this spring that will highlight the ongoing work to protect and restore the coast.

The summit, “Ripple Effect: Enhancing Oysters, Salt Marsh and Water Quality Together,” is scheduled for April 8-9 in Marbles Kids Museum on Hargett Street in downtown.

Being hosted by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, cost is $125 before March 1. Price will increase to $150 for those registering after.

There will be presentations on coastal policy and threats to coastal habitats, as well as discussions on prioritizing future work.

“This two-day summit will highlight the progress and interconnectivity of work related to the advancing science, restoration, and preservation activities of many important coastal ecosystems,” organizers said.

View the agenda on the nonprofit organization’s website.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation is partnering with two private firms to build a 1-acre salt marsh to serve as a “donor marsh” for scarce native salt marsh plants coastal restoration projects.

The Coastal Federation, NR Lands, LLC, and Backwater Environmental recently began construction of the donor marsh at North River Wetlands Preserve in Carteret County, which is itself a 6,800-acre wetland restoration project.

Formerly farmland, the Coastal Federation purchased the property in 1999 and has slowly restored it to forested freshwater and tidal wetlands. The return to nature has helped improve water quality in downstream estuaries by capturing sediments, bacteria and nutrients.

The Coastal Federation said that salt marsh habitat in North Carolina is at risk from land use changes, accelerated erosion rates and climate-driven sea level rise.

The North Carolina Division of Coastal Management determined that an estimated 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands are being lost on average each year in the U.S., up from 60,000 acres lost a year during the previous study. Additionally, restoration efforts in North Carolina are often hindered by a lack of native salt marsh grass plants available to purchase.

“The donor marsh will provide a consistent source of salt marsh plants that will reduce lead times and expense for other restoration projects,” said Coastal Federation Water Quality Program Director Bree Charon. “It also provides the co-benefit of filtering water entering Ward Creek and providing habitat for the many species that call North River Wetlands Preserve home.”

Once mature, the donor marsh will help supply plants that now cost anywhere from 75 cents to $2 each, providing significant savings. The donor marsh is intended a first-of-its-kind plant nursery in North Carolina that officials hope to see replicated by commercial nurseries.

Construction began Thursday, and work is expected to take a month to complete. Later this spring volunteers will help plant the initial salt marsh plants and will eventually help harvest plants once they are mature.

The North Carolina Land and Water Fund and the National Fish Habitat Partnership funded the project.

Erin Fleckenstein, oyster program director for the North Carolina Coastal Federation, was presented with Dare County Soil and Water Conservation District’s inaugural Salt Marsh Award.

County staff and her colleagues recognized Fleckenstein Tuesday morning during a short presentation at the nonprofit Coastal Federation’s office in Wanchese.

The newly established award recognizes those who make outstanding contributions to the conservation of natural resources in Dare County, with a particular focus on combating erosion, runoff and other water quality issues, the county said.

Soil and Water Conservation Districts are established by state law to help landowners conserve and protect natural resources. The district’s board of supervisors provides citizen guidance and is made up of elected officials and board-appointed members.

Fleckenstein has been a member of the district’s supervisor board since 2015 “providing valuable expert guidance on soil and water conservation, oyster restoration, and living shorelines in general,” officials said, adding that she’s attended meetings and trainings, “but her most important responsibility was to promote soil and water conservation in the community. She has taken this responsibility to heart in her positions with both the Dare Soil & Water Conservation District and the N.C. Coastal Federation.”

Fleckenstein earned her bachelor’s degree in marine and freshwater biology from the University of New Hampshire and her master’s in marine biology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She joined the Coastal Federation in 2008 as a coastal scientist in the Wanchese office and served in that role for 14 years before becoming oyster program director in 2022. She also acted as regional manager for the office in the Outer Banks from 2012 to 2022.

Fleckenstein has lead and assisted in a range of projects, including living shorelines to reduce erosion, wetland restorations and other natural mitigation strategies. She has served as a mentor and subject matter expert to boards and committees.

“Erin has played a key role in preserving the Dare Soil & Water Conservation District and all of the work it does. It is our pleasure to present the 2024 Inaugural Salt Marsh Award from the Dare Soil & Water Conservation District to Erin Fleckenstein as an appreciation for the many things she has done, is doing, and will do in the future to improve and conserve the natural resources of Dare County,” county officials said.

The Coastal Federation published Coastal Review.

Featured Image

A wedge of egrets fish in a salt marsh along North River near Beaufort. Photo: Dylan Ray

Threats to the state’s 220,000 acres of salt marshes spurred the development of a five-year strategy designed to protect and restore this vegetation that helps protect shorelines from erosion and provides habitat for juvenile seafood to grow.

Released Wednesday, the North Carolina Salt Marsh Action Plan has the overarching goal “to protect, restore, and facilitate the migration of salt marshes in North Carolina to minimize loss of function, benefits, and acreage through 2050 and beyond.”

There are numerous persistent and emerging threats to current and future salt marshes such as incompatible land and water uses, wave energy caused by boat wakes, and, as a result of climate change, more intense and wetter storms and sea level rise. The state plan offers strategies to address these threats, plus ways to promote the plan’s goals and actions, and a five-year monitoring and evaluation strategy to track success.

“Salt Marshes provide numerous benefits to the health and productivity of the coastal environment, economy, and culture. These benefits include essential fish habitats, water quality enhancements, climate change mitigation, and enhanced community and ecosystem resilience through flood and erosion protection,” Coastal Federation Salt Marsh Program Director Jacob Boyd said in a statement. “We can’t afford to lose that through inaction, especially with the ever-increasing impacts from climate change.”

The state plan was developed to implement the regional marsh plan, “Marsh Forward: A Regional Plan for the Future of the South Atlantic Coast’s Million-Acre Salt Marsh Ecosystem” the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative, or SASMI, released in May 2023.

The Pew Charitable Trusts and Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability formed SASMI in 2021. The regional initiative is an effort of more than 350 partners to preserve and enhance the existing million acres of salt marsh between North Carolina and the northern Atlantic coast of Florida. The states are developing implementation plans specific to their needs.

“The development of the NC Salt Marsh Action Plan that builds off the SASMI regional efforts highlights the importance of protecting and restoring salt marshes in North Carolina and the region,” said Sarah Spiegler, North Carolina Sea Grant coastal resilience specialist. “The Plan’s emphasis on partner collaboration is vital to ensure we effectively build more resilient coastal communities and habitats throughout North Carolina.”

There are numerous partners who will contribute to plan implementation as members of the Salt Marsh Steering Committee that the Coastal Federation is leading, including the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, Audubon North Carolina, Carolina Wetlands Association, Department of Environmental Quality, Duke University, East Carolina University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Eastern North Carolina Sentinel Landscape and others.

I find great peace in the ever-changing place called the salt marsh.

The tides come and go. Marsh grass is sometimes fluorescent green, other times it’s devoid of color. At times the water appears crystal clear and at others it’s murky. The marsh, or tidal creek appears different as the light changes, fog rolls in or out. Sunrises or sunsets, moonrises or sets, I find solitude in the salt marsh.

There are hundreds of acres of marsh that I paddle on a stand-up paddleboard, an SUP for short. There is little to no sound from my craft that tops out at around 3 mph and is propelled by my single-blade paddle.

The vantage point of just over 6 feet above the water is where I observe some creatures that are just visitors and others that call the salt marsh their home. Some are there to breed, others to feed. I’m just passing through their habitat as an observer, sometimes with a camera to document and preserve the memories of my paddle.

The marsh is a place where I can observe Kooks to my right, Pogues to my left and I’m right in the middle just doing my own thing.

My children grew up there, I refuse to get old there. My children Alyson and Travis grew up on Pages Creek in northern New Hanover County just outside of the Wilmington city limits. They both were greatly influenced by the marsh and they both developed a respect and appreciation for the water.

My son was so moved by this natural environment that he became a marine biologist and is now teaching and doing research for the next generation so they can help preserve our precious resources.

My daughter lives near a beach on the West Coast. She loves to swim in the ocean when it rarely reaches a comfortable temperature, explores tide pools, runs along the coast and will take in a sunset whenever possible.

On my marsh excursions I have seen otters, sea turtle, dolphin, stingray, shark, terrapin, various jellyfish, bald eagle, osprey, deer, owl, tree frogs, heron, egret, migratory birds, spiders, snakes, a multitude of different fish, spitting oysters and a watercraft or two — or more – on which humans are normally speeding by on their way to somewhere else.

I first started paddling the marsh just over 25 years ago. My mode of transportation in the early years was a sea kayak. I’m also a surfer, so when stand-up paddleboards made their way to Wilmington, I was game for trying it.

The first SUPs were basically just large surfboards. I started out with one of this style board and throughout the years moved up to a displacement hull, which is much more efficient then the early basic SUPs. I can paddle much farther and more efficiently, effectively adding much more mileage to my trips.

My longest rigorous paddle was a 12-mile venture just to challenge myself on a really long paddle. My go-to routes are in the 6- to 8-mile range, which is a relaxing outing for me now.

I enjoy bringing first-time paddlers out into the water. I always paddle at their pace (as long as it’s not faster than I can paddle) so they can relax and not worry about overexerting themselves.

One first-timer was Edwin Toone, who is from Spain and in great shape. He did 6 miles his first time out. We were both treated to seeing a sea horse that day, about an inch in length, swimming in Banks Channel at Wrightsville Beach.

A unique experience was when I discovered a colony of bonnethead sharks behind Masonboro Island. It was a fun summer as I could paddle to my secret spot and normally see the smallest member of the hammerhead shark family within a few minutes.

The sharks spend winters several thousand miles south of here and migrate back every year for breeding and rearing their young.

Another time I was able to paddle with a 2-foot sea turtle pretty deep into the marsh and ran across an otter that wanted nothing to do with me, but it was a treat to see.

Marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols writes in his book, “Blue Mind,” that we humans benefit from spending time in, on under and near water. He writes that “the water experience can make you happier, healthier, more connected, and better at what you do.”

I know that when I spend time surfing or paddling I come back to dry land with a much calmer feeling. It’s somewhat similar to the runners high I used to get by putting in a solid run, that is before my knees decided they did not appreciate the pounding from the sport.

The book states that “Blue Mind, a mildly meditative state characterized by calm, peacefulness, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment.”

It also mentions that, “We know instinctively that being by water makes us healthier, happier, reduces stress, and brings us peace.” I completely agree.

The most exotic sea creature I have seen so far was a spotted eagle sting ray. It looks as though it could have just swam in from tropical waters. At about 4 1/2 feet of wingspan, it was a good-sized ray.

While I have found great solitude in the marsh, my new favorite paddle is with my girlfriend, Cara Bloom. We create our own Sunday brunch by packing some fruit and sandwiches along with a few towels to spread out on the sand. We’ll paddle to our own private beach and let the birds sing us a serenade and provide an airshow. It’s a much better way to brunch than any I’ve ever experienced.

This winter was the first time I went oystering on my board. I could paddle in to waters too shallow for most boats so early season bore plentiful large salty oysters. I would load up a 5-gallon bucket with approximately a half-bushel of the tasty bivalve mollusks to later eat raw or steamed the same day I harvested them, so the flavor was magnificent.

While I have never heard crawdads sing out in my salt marsh, the paddle never gets old.

A new regional plan aims to protect vitally important salt marsh habitats.

The South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative was unveiled Wednesday.

Salt marshes are known for their value in reducing flooding and erosion while providing wildlife and fish habitats important for recreational and commercial fishing, hunting, birding, eco-tourism and other activities that support coastal businesses and economies.

The voluntary plan to maintain and enhance the productivity and benefits of a million acres of salt marsh from North Carolina to east-central Florida includes strategies, objectives and actions ranging from living shorelines to conserving natural land near marshes so the tidal wetlands can move inland as sea levels rise.

The plan includes suggestions for securing funding, improving land use planning processes, and educating and engaging communities in salt marsh conservation projects.

South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative was developed over two years by a coalition of more than 300 military and government officials, community leaders, conservationists, scientists, fishermen and others, including the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review. The nonprofit organization is leading the initiative for the North Carolina Salt Marsh Conservation Action Plan, expected to be released this fall.

The initiative will work with its partners throughout the region to implement the plan over the next five years. Initial meetings will be scheduled in each state in the coming months to discuss the plan and develop the next steps.

The coalition was brought together by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability, or SERPPAS, whose members include the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies along with state environmental and natural resource officials from across the Southeast.

The Defense Department hosts more than a dozen installations on or near the Southeast Coast and some, such as Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot in South Carolina, already are experiencing flooding and other effects of rising seas.

“The Department of Defense relies on healthy, functioning ecosystems to support our mission readiness. But these ecosystems and the services they provide are changing rapidly, and no entity, area or activity is going to be immune to effects of these changes,” said SERPPAS principal co-chair and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience Richard Kidd.

“Specifically, for military installations along the coasts, the DoD is concerned about saltwater intrusion, sea level rise, and storm surge. As the sea advances and salt marshes migrate it compresses existing infrastructure and encroaches on our installations,” he said. “So, we need to not only preserve salt marsh to serve as a buffer for our installations but also ensure that migration can occur without conflicting other land uses. We know it’s going to take cooperation and partnerships to address these issues, and this conservation plan is a significant step toward planning for the future.”

The South Atlantic coast is home to millions of coastal residents, including the Gullah/Geechee Nation, who are descendants of enslaved Africans and indigenous Americans who are linked with the salt marsh. Chieftess Queen Quet, who works to protect the sacred lands and waterways of her people, served on the initiative’s steering committee because she recognizes the value of salt marshes to the sustainability of her homeland, for food security and Gullah/Geechee spiritual practices.

The North Carolina Salt Marsh Conservation Action Plan is to provide a detailed geospatial analysis of the current and future projections of salt marsh gain or loss, a reference guide of potential priority strategies for marsh restoration and migration facilitation, and a local stakeholder-informed plan to begin implementation of specific actions.

“No wetlands means no seafood,” said Coastal Federation Executive Director Todd Miller. “Now we have a strategy to perpetuate the many benefits of our salt marshes even as the sea level rises and there are more intense storms caused by global warming. We must work quickly if our marshes are to adapt and survive these climate changes.”

Dare County residents who own land with salt marsh are being asked to answer a five-minute survey to help the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative develop programs and incentives for land conservation.

Dare County Soil and Water Conservation District, the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative and the Conservation Fund, an environmental nonprofit, are working together on the effort are.

Landowners are being asked to compete the online survey by Friday, Oct. 14.

South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative is made up of federal, state and military leaders, conservation groups, scientists, and community and cultural interest groups with a common goal to protect the southeastern salt marshes.

A salt marsh is a coastal wetland that is flooded and drained by saltwater brought in by the tides, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These intertidal habitats provide food, refuge or nursery habitats for more than 75% of fisheries species, including shrimp, blue crab and many finfish.

Salt marshes help protect shorelines from erosion by buffering wave action and trapping sediments, reduce flooding by slowing and absorbing rainwater, and help protect water quality by filtering runoff and by metabolizing excess nutrients.

One example officials gave of a conservation initiative that could be proposed as a result of the feedback from the survey is a Salt Marsh Reserve Program. The program would pay landowners to protect salt marshes or other critical coastal and inland areas on their property for 10, 15 or 20 years. Protection during this time may include implementing land management practices or compatible income-generating practices such as hunting or fishing.

For more information about the initiative, the Conservation Fund or this questionnaire, please contact Margaret Conrad at mconrad@conservationfund.org.

One of nature’s bounce-back coastal ecosystems has a new enemy, an invasive species that has been found to significantly slow the pace at which a salt marsh can adapt to climate change-related issues.

Feral hogs.

Yes, you read that right. Feral hogs.

“What we know about salt marshes is they’re this amazing resilience system that aren’t being affected as much by climate change as other ecosystems,” said Brian Silliman, Rachel Carson Distinguished Professor of marine conservation biology at Duke University. “They’re recovering. They die off with big drought stress or heat stress, but they come back pretty fast and that’s unlike coral reefs. They come back faster than mangroves and they come back faster than seagrasses. They just come back fast.”

But feral hogs and their hankering for mussel mounds that thrive in salt marshes are drastically slowing the rate at which these marshes can recover from drought and sea level rise, according to a recently published study Silliman co-authored.

Hogs are omnivores. They’re particularly keen on eggs and wreak havoc on the nests of ground birds. (Remember Angry Birds, the popular children’s game-turned-movie?)

Researchers initially suspected the hogs were maybe grubbing for the roots of plants in the salt marshes where it was evident hogs roamed, their signature telltale sign of existence is the trails they created trampling from one food source to another.

“If you’re walking along a trail, you look down and you see a lot of hog poop and you look in that hog poop and it’s just full of these mussel shells,” Silliman said.

With one bite, a hog can easily break the relatively soft mussel shell and gobble the mussel nestled within.

“When they get to the areas that are particularly attractive, in this case there’s a lot of mussel mounds, that’s what they’re after. They’ll spread out and two or three of them will concentrate on these mussel mounds that are maybe 5 feet across and they’ll really go to town,” Silliman said.

These mussel mounds play a particularly unique, and quite critical, role in a salt marshes’ resilience.

Christine Angelini, an assistant professor in environmental engineering sciences at the University of Florida, who was a research student working with Silliman at the time of the study, discovered that mussels have a partnership with Spartina, also known as cordgrass.

“Even though mussels only cover 1% of the marsh surface, there’s mounds every 10 meters,” Silliman said. “It’s like the perfect place for marsh grass to grow. The mussels poop on their roots so they get extra nutrients. They retain water so they don’t dry out. They harbor little crab predators in between the mussels and the predators kill any snails that might eat the grass. If you’re going to live anywhere in the marsh it’s like the super nice Waldorf Astoria of a mussel.”

When a marsh comes under stress, say, by a drought, most of the marsh grass dies. Grass on mussel mounds live.

“What happens is after the drought subsides those places act like nucleating startup spots and the rest of the marsh regrows from those areas through sprouting,” Silliman said. “So, if you don’t have those mussels there, the whole marsh dies and then it’s going to recover and actually be in a state of decline like the other ecosystems.”

Mussel mounds are just as important to salt marshes when it comes to their ability to adapt to sea level rise.

“Both the presence of grasses and the mussels on the shoreline leads to the accumulation of mud and elevations increase over time,” Silliman said. “The mussels are much better at it than the grasses. The grasses just slow down the water and the sediments fall out. The mussels are active filter feeders and so they’re concentrating mud in areas and it could grow a couple of inches a year in elevation and have no problem keeping up with sea level.”

Feral hogs are very abundant animals that are only increasing in number.

The more hogs in a marsh, the more destruction to that marsh.

“What happens is when the hogs come in, you eliminate those organisms that can build land,” Silliman said. “You’ve got to have those mussels around. The hogs love those mussels. What they do is get rid of the key partner that underlies this magical resilience that marshes have.”

Coastal marshes are a defensive line in nature. They filter nutrients and pollution from water, buffer storm surge during hurricanes and other coastal storms, and support breeding grounds for a variety of fish.

Silliman has worked for years in salt marshes, studying, along with fellow researchers, marine organisms like mussels and crabs.

While their attention was turned on the smaller creatures living in the marsh, they couldn’t help but notice the recurring presence of two big animals that didn’t belong in the marshes in which they were conducting research: alligators and feral hogs.

“For hogs, you can really see they’re really leaving a big mark on these salt marshes in areas where they’re dense and you can see that with drones,” Silliman said. “The drones are revolutionizing the study of large animals because large animals, really the ones that are left are really adept at avoiding humans in most cases. Without the drones in the study it just doesn’t become as relevant because we can’t access those marshes. We wouldn’t be able to do this big survey and people, in general, probably us too, would think this is a relatively isolated case and you just happened to stumble across a marsh that was hit really heavy by hogs.”

Silliman and his colleagues focused on Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve in Georgia, where researchers first noticed feral hogs were impacting marshes nearly a decade ago.

Researchers also looked, through the use of drones, at marshes in northern Florida, where the habitat is similar to that of Sapelo Island, the fourth largest in the chain of Georgia’s coastal islands.

“We haven’t done it here in North Carolina,” Silliman said. “We’re looking to do that.”

He first has to find a student to use drones to identify coastal marshes inhabited by feral hogs.

Feral hogs are a well-known nuisance in Currituck County, the northeastern most county in North Carolina and home to the Currituck Banks Reserve, which stretches more than 44,000 acres.

Since 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services program has worked with the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management to manage the feral hog population on the reserve.

“As far as that northeastern population, really the work that’s being done up there is to protect the natural resources,” said Josh Biesecker, a USDA wildlife biologist based in Williamston. “They do include the marsh. That is a portion of what’s being protected.”

USDA received federal funding in 2014 to manage feral wildlife.

The Currituck reserve is an isolated area, accessible only by bridge. Biesecker explained that, because the area is isolated, officials believe the feral hog population could be eradicated.

There are no official estimates on how many feral hogs are in that area.

Hogs not only harm the marsh, they damage infrastructure, including roads, and they carry disease.

Biesecker declined to discuss the number of feral hogs that have been trapped and killed over the years through the program. He prefers instead to talk about the program’s success.

“We’ve really noticed through these efforts that the damage has decreased,” he said. “It’s not to say that that population’s gone. It’s a vast area and it’s very remote out there. With what’s been done up there the biggest impact as far as removing those animals is what’s been done to protect the marsh and the infrastructure of those roads.”

HOLLY RIDGE — Volunteers of all ages and abilities are needed 10 a.m.-2 p.m. July 5 to help plant salt marsh grasses as part of a project to restore salt marsh and oyster habitat at Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation is hosting the workday at the preserve, which has more than 3,000 feet of shoreline along Stump Sound and contains coastal shrub scrub, forest habitat, salt marsh and tidal creek areas.

Volunteers will be working in wet, dry, sandy and muddy conditions and use tools to install plants along the shoreline during low tide. All project supplies and equipment, refreshments and lunch will be provided by the federation.

Organizers recommend that volunteers dress in comfortable clothes that can get dirty, wear boots or closed-toe shoes that cover the entire foot, bring a water bottle, hat and sunglasses and any medication that may be needed while on site. There will be options for different tasks that can accommodate a range of physical abilities.

“Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve is an excellent demonstration of the benefits of a living shoreline,” Jessica Gray, coastal outreach associate for the Wrightsville Beach office, said in a statement. “Visitors can learn about the five project phases and the various techniques used to stabilize the shoreline while helping restore critical estuarine habitat.”

In addition to restoring the salt marsh, the work on Morris Creek will enhance public access and recreation, expand shellfish enhancement activities in the area and protect the waters of Stump Sound in Onslow County, according to the release. Morris Landing is part of the federation and Division of Marine Fisheries’ plan to restore oysters, enhance shellfish habitat and maintain a sustainable oyster fishery in the waters of Stump Sound and other surrounding waters.

For more information, contact Gray at jessicag@nccoast.org or 910-509-2838.

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