March 2021 Webinar - Urban wetland initiatives – Increasing resiliency of New York City salt marshes
Thursday, March 18, 2021 (1:00 PM - 2:00 PM) (EDT)
Description
Monthly webinars are offered as a benefit of membership. Once each quarter, in March, July, September and December, the monthly SWS webinar is open for non-members to attend (and at no cost), as well.
Note that this webinar is free and open to the public at no cost!
Description: New York City (NYC) salt marshes are subject to increased risk from accelerated sea-level rise (SLR). Exacerbating the effects of SLR, they are subject to nutrient overloading from sewage outfalls, low sediment inputs from armored shorelines, dredging of waterways for navigation, and more. Given the situation, NYC Parks is managing and restoring our marshes for long-term sustainability and resilience.
Following reporting of marsh loss in Jamaica Bay (near JFK International Airport), we analyzed changes in salt marsh extent city-wide. Results indicated significant marsh loss between 1974 and 2012 through both erosion at the outer marsh edge and enlargement of pooling within the marsh interior. At six sites where we installed Surface Elevation Tables and associated feldspar marker horizons (SET-MH) stations, we found that while many of our marshes were accreting sediment and increasing in elevation, they were not keeping pace with relative SLR (2.87 mm x yr-1 at The Battery in lower Manhattan).
Among current restoration projects are those focused on the waterward expansion of salt marshes to the mapped 1974 tidal wetland boundaries and on the application of thin-layer sediment in subsiding interiors. We are also working with ornithologists dedicated to addressing nesting habitat needs, such as those for secretive salt marsh sparrow species. In an effort to extend marsh longevity, we currently design salt marshes at higher elevations within the salt marsh range, seeking opportunities for potential inland migration of the salt marsh and for necessary interventions at those marshes most vulnerable to unsustainable inundation.
Presenter: Ellen Kracauer Hartig, PWS
Ellen Kracauer Hartig has thirty years’ experience in wetlands research, teaching, government agency and community advocacy work. Her start was with environmental consulting firms, after which she joined Columbia University’s Climate Impacts Group. There she was able to document surprising decades-long tidal wetland losses in Jamaica Bay, one of the largest coastal ecosystems in New York State. This work became part of the 2001 Metro East Coast contribution to the first National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change for the United States.
Currently she works in the Natural Resources Group at NYC Parks, conducting salt marsh restorations and research. Among her favorite professional activities is collecting data from Sediment Elevation Tables (SETs) installed as much as a decade ago, repairing goose exclosures at newly-established restoration sites, and conducting nighttime horseshoe crab counts with volunteers. She is also affiliated with the City University of New York. This year, as she adapts protocols to minimize the risk of COVID-19, distancing and wearing masks, her work dedicated to the preservation of estuarine habitats in highly urbanized areas continues unabated.
