Habitat Restoration

In recent decades, habitat restoration has emerged as a powerful approach to restoring wetlands, rivers and other natural habitats damaged or destroyed by human activity. Funding is provided by state, federal and local agencies, generally working in partnership with local and non-governmental organizations. On Narragansett Bay, salt marshes have been restored by replacing culverts to restore tidal flooding, while sea grass planting has helped spur the recovery of eelgrass beds. On river systems throughout the Bay watershed, projects are underway to remove dams or construct fish ladders, in order to restore annual spawning runs of migratory fish.

The largest wetland restoration project completed to date on Narragansett Bay is the Town Pond restoration. Before 1949, Town Pond was a salt pond on Aquidneck Island, connected to Mount Hope Bay by a tidal channel or breachway. The pond was fringed by salt marshes, comprising altogether about 40 acres of valuable wetland habitat.

In 1949-50, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used Town Pond as a disposal site for mud dredged from the Mount Hope Bay shipping channel. The operation filled the pond with fine sediments, raising it above the level of the tide, converting the former pond and marshes into a barren mudflat and destroying its value as fisheries habitat. By the 1990s, the invasive reed Phragmites had completely taken over the entire site. The former salt pond had lost most of its native biodiversity.

Beginning in 2000, the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, R.I. Dept. of Environmental Management and other partners restored salt water habitat at Town Pond, excavating the site to restore open-water and salt marsh habitat, while enhancing public access to the shore. The project was completed in 2008 at a cost of $6 million. More than 20 acres of coastal habitat have been restored and the area has become a popular recreational site. Estuarine fish such as silversides returned to the pond almost immediately, while Roger Williams University is now restoring oysters.

As is almost always the case with coastal habitat restoration projects, Town Pond was funded through a combination of federal, state and non-governmental sources, including funds from the Corps, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, R.I. Dept. of Environmental Management, R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council, Aquidneck Island Land Trust and Ducks Unlimited.

In-kind support was provided by Town of Portsmouth, Save The Bay and other local partners.

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