Deep in the Great Marsh: Smithsonian event highlights the natural wonders, threats

Sep. 30—In a way, Essex is Ground Zero in the battle to save the Great Marsh, a 25 ,000 -acre swath of wetlands that stretches from Cape Ann to beyond the New Hampshire border.

Eelgrass restoration efforts in the tidal Essex River and Bay are in full swing and will be one of the stories shared by Peter Phippen, selectman and ecologist, who has the unenviable task of distilling the complex, evolving 3,000-year-old story of the Great Marsh in a nice, tidy narrative.

At 7 p.m., Oct. 4, Phippen will step to the mic and host "A Piece of Something Great, The Story of the Marsh," as part of Smithsonian Museum on Main Street's traveling exhibit "Crossroads: Changes in Rural America" at the Essex Historical Society & Shipbuilding Museum, 66 Main St., Essex.

Like the marsh itself, Phippen will have a lot of ground to cover — the history, the geology, the biology and botany, the science and the efforts to restore, protect and heal the ecology of the salt marsh.

With the aid of aerial photography, Phippen will capture some of the majestic expansiveness of the Great Marsh.

"We'll begin with some nice aerials — it's a different view from the road than it is from an airplane so you can really see the creek meandering around. You can see how man has altered it, filled it, ditched it."

As the coastal coordinator of the Upper North Shore of the Massachusetts Bays National Estuaries Partnership, Phippen will share the "processes" and science that impact the health of the Great Marsh with its barrier beaches, marshes, flats and tidal creeks, and the influence of tides.

He'll offer up a cross-section of the marsh, its vegetation and how it changes in low-tide areas, high-tide area, upland platforms, and show off some of the vegetation found throughout.

He'll highlight salt pannes and pools and their value to shorebirds.

"The Great Marsh is in fact a major stopover in the North American flyway for migrating birds. That's why this time of year you see so many birds and birders out there. In many cases, it's the only place migratory birds will stop over — from the arctic down to where they are going. It is extremely important."

Ice Age impact

History of the marsh, how it was formed and the impact of the Ice Age will also take center stage during the presentation.

"It has only been around for about 3,000 years."

Before that, the sea level was much lower, he said. In the 1500s, native tribes were the dominant users of the marshes' wealth of resources.

When Europeans arrived in the 1600s, they found fish and shellfish abundant and super-sized, he said.

"It was like lobsters on steroids, bass four feet long, everything was huge because they had a chance to grow to their full potential," he said. "Twenty pound lobsters, that's what they claimed."

Unlike those before them, the newcomers used the marshes in new ways, often without regard.

"As we started using the salt marsh for fodder for livestock, farmers would try to close off some of the salt water to freshen it up for their cattle. We fished, we hunted, we planted. It was a real natural resource extraction era. We started to use the river for water power, tidal power, industrial power. Fishing, farming and planting are all still important but water power was really taking over."

The unfettered use of the waterways also prompted regulations in the 1600s, Phippen said, prohibiting the damming or impeding of the flow of water and the all-important alewife.

"Way back then. Three-hundred years ago," he said.

"In the mid-1800s, the marsh attracts artists. In the last 100 years, the Great Marsh converted from extraction of natural resources to recreation. Except for some clammers and some fishermen, we're not using it for sustenance as much any more," he said. With the advent of the highway, more and more people can move up and live in the marsh, access the marsh.

Threats to the marsh continue and change, with climate change and infrastructure failings serving as a one-two punch, he said.

"We're still encroaching on it, we're still filling it, we're still dredging it. We're not draining or ditching it anymore, but we're still overfishing. There are a lot of regulations that protect it but there's still storm water run-off going in with pollutants," he said.

Aside from all the fish and wildlife found there, the boaters, birdwatchers, sportsmen, artists, fishermen using it, Phippen said the marshes' other value is shown when storms batter the coast.

"The marsh is really good at mitigating, protecting the upland areas from storm surge, and waves and storms. The marsh is extremely valuable in that sense."

Essex Eelgrass

The Essex River eelgrass restoration project is an ongoing effort to reintroduce a plant that stabilizes sediments and provides habitat for fish.

"The Great Marsh lost it probably 70 years ago and it hasn't been back since, but we were very successful. We established a two- or three-acre bed in Essex River to the point where it was thriving and expanding."

Unfortunately, the eelgrass beds were upended by clammers, unaware of the fragile nature of the ecosystem, and the project.

"Now, we're using divers, and we're going into a little bit deeper water — we know the eelgrass will survive there... Eelgrass is protected but so are the clammers' right to dig," he said.

Other projects involve dune restoration and innovative drainage, he said.

"You're getting a lot of water now, especially with sea level rise that's pounding on the marsh, because water is getting up there more frequently, it's getting up higher and it's not draining off. It's causing issues — marsh die-off, there's over-draining that's happening — so there are some projects we're working on to try to restore flow and drainage in the marsh," he said.

Another tool Phippen said he'd love to explore is thin-layer placement of dredging material to help build up the marshes. It's been done successfully elsewhere, he said, and by the Army Corps of Engineers.

MARSH FACTS

Seventy-five percent of the catch of the state's commercial fisheries spends some portion of their life-cycle in the nurturing waters of the state's marshes.

Salisbury installed a wetland-based water treatment system — 30 years ago.

Combined sewer overflows — big rain events overwhelm systems, combines with storm water into the waterways.

Great Marsh Partnership — an adhoc group of environmentalists, scientists, academics with a common goal to "try to do restoration work in the Great Marsh."

Joel Barrett may be contacted at jbarrett@gloucestertimes.com