Marsh Migration Group
Rapidly rising seas threaten to drown tidal marshes and diminish the benefits provided to people and wildlife by these valuable coastal ecosystems. Increasingly, government agencies and non-government organizations are harnessing the power of computer-based models of marsh ecosystems to inform management and policy strategies to sustain tidal marshes, including by allowing marshes to shift gradually inland with sea level rise onto formerly dry land—a process known as marsh migration. In response to a need identified by its members and partners, NROC sponsored an initiative in 2014-15 to advance the effective use of models of marsh migration in the context of management and policy.
The Marsh Migration Group is one of two NROC groups engaged in Resilient Shorelines, along with the Living Shorelines Group.
Featured Activities & Products
Workshop: Using Technology and Emerging Practices to Improve Tidal Marsh Habitat Resiliency
Available documents include the workshop agenda, list of attendees, and presentations given during the various sessions: marsh models – state updates, model applications for tidal habitat resiliency planning (coming soon), nonstructural management practices that build resiliency, structural management practices that build resiliency, and the Mills River field trip.
The report Make Way for Marshes: Guidance on Using Models of Tidal Marsh Migration to Support Community Resilience to Sea Level Rise covers the entire modeling life-cycle.
Tidal Crossings Assessment Workshop
Available documents include the Workshop Agenda and a list of participants. Subsequent to this regional workshop in Sept. 2015, a number of partners in New Hampshire completed development of NH’s Tidal Crossing Assessment Protocol, which now serves as a screening and prioritization tool.
Marsh Migration Modeling & Policy Workshop
| Welcome and Setting the Stage | Applications in NE, Part 1 | Applications in NE, Part 2 |
| Data and Model Parameters | Monitoring, Restoration, and Policy |
Group Membership
| Casco Bay Estuary Partnership | Catalysis Adaptation Partners |
| CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection | Great Bay NERR |
| Long Island Sound Study | Maine Coastal Program |
| Maine Geological Society | Maine Natural Areas Program |
| Mass Audubon | Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program |
| MA Office of Coastal Zone Management | MA Division of Ecological Restoration |
| Merrimack Valley Planning Commission | National Park Service |
| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission |
| NH Department of Environmental Services | NH Fish and Game Department |
| Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies | RI Coastal Resources Management Council |
| Rockingham Planning Commission | The Nature Conservancy |
| Town of Newbury | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | U.S. Geological Survey |
| University of Connecticut | University of New Hampshire |
| Warren Pinacle Consulting, Inc. | Waterview Consulting |
| Yale University |
Marsh Migration Resources
Products
Workshops
- September 10, 2015 Tidal Crossings Assessments Workshop
- December 3-4, 2014 Marsh Migration Policy and Modeling Workshop