[CT Birds] Silver Sands - That Wonderful Trash - Trash to Energy

[ORCHIDS]

The trash referred to in Digest 399 volume 2 should remind us that we  
once used 'wastelands' like tidal wetlands for our household waste.   
When you park at Silver Sands - you are parking on the southern slope  
of the municipal landfill with an impervious cap to prevent  
infiltration of rainwater.  The landfill was created from tidal  
wetland.  What remains of the Fletchers Creek marsh is but the 21  
acres of wetland restored by DEP beginning in 1993(?).  The complex of  
Fletchers Creek and Great Creek to the east was one of the largest  
marsh complexes along the coast.  Great Creek to the East was  
connected to the Sound by a two-foot diameter pipe equipped with a  
tide gate.  It was drained for many decades.  Draining a salt marsh  
invariably makes the marsh a source of pollution - known as acid  
sulphate soils (http://www.nrw.qld.gov.au/land/ass/index.html).  These  
wetlands also subside - loss elevation as the organic soil decomposes  
upon exposure to air.  Fletchers Creek was also drained by a small  
tide gate.

Does anyone remember when Fletchers Creek was nearly monoculture 15  
foot tall common reed (Phragmites australis)?  If you have a chance to  
walk the boardwalk at Silvers Sands - image 15 foot reed on either  
side - you would not be able to see the marsh as you do today.  The  
first phase was tidal flow restoration via a series of large culverts  
and creating a new tidal creek network.  Observe carefully the  
southernmost tidal creek from the boardwalk -on the east side.  Notice  
the wood projecting from the tidal peat.  That is no ordinary wood -  
the is the remnants of a wall of cottage destroyed by the 1954  
hurricane and then bulldozed into the marsh.  That hurricane provide  
the state an opportunity to purchase Silver Sands and Great Creek.   
Since the restoration of tidal flow there has been a gradual decline  
of common reed and a replacement my native salt marsh grasses.

There were paper trails through the unfilled Fletchers Creek and  
various debris was dumped there - yes throughout the whole 15 acres.   
You do not see this except at a tidal creek for common reed grew over  
this trash layer creating organic soil known as peat.  For the  
development of the Master Plan for Silver Sands State Park - the  
question was what to do with the southernmost perimeter of the  
landfill was technical inland wetland.  Upon this band grew invasive  
species such as common reed and tree-of-heaven.  Federal and state  
permits were not likely to issue to fill this perimeter and so it was  
decided to excavate to an elevation that would be subject to tidal  
flow.  The landfill is so old that what remains is the material that  
would not degrade plastic, plastic toys, glass bottles (today we  
recycle bottles).  At the north end of the boardwalk, five acres of  
'degraded wetland' was excavated.  Typically exposed soil such as this  
support tidal marsh vegetation in 3 to five years - alas this process  
has been slower at this location but today much of this area is now  
colonized by salt-water cord-grass.  These grasses are beginning to  
build new tidal marsh peat -raising the elevation of the surface in an  
attempt to keep pace with sea level rise.  So in time - if folks are  
patient, the trash will magically disappear.

The Commissioner of DEP often notes that the planet can heal itself if  
given a chance.  When Dr. Goodwin of Connecticut Collegewrote about  
tidal marshes in 1961 (Connecticut's Coastal Marshes: A Vanishing  
Resource), he did not expect it was possible to restore a wetland such  
as Fletcher Creek that had been so abused by man back to a healthy  
functioning tidal marsh.  The restoration of this marsh is truly  
amazing - Trash to Energy - the grasses of the marsh capture sunlight  
and generate their own energy that fuels the various pathways of the  
estuary.  So yes, that trash is wonderful - it demonstrates that the  
degraded habitats of the planet can be healed.  The real question now  
is whether our tidal marsh will survive the flood that is already at  
our doorstep from global warming and sea level rise will accelerate in  
the future.

Ron, Ashford, CT