Salt Marsh Reclamation

 
  Relatively early in the 19th century agriculture enthusiast (called "improvers") advocated for changes in coastal farming and claimed that salt marshes were nothing more than waste lands. Those intimately connected to the marshes, though, did not hold this same opinion. While the price of salt hay remained high, the marshes remained relatively safe from the pressures of marshland "improvement". However, in the 1840’s the price of salt hay fell to half that of upland hay and, as both demand and price dropped, farmers sought viable alternatives. In addition, the value of land containing coastal wetlands began to decrease as the improvers succeeded in shifting general opinion. Even the salt marsh vistas that had once been considered picturesque had decidedly become second-rate views (Stilgoe 1994).

    The improvers strongly supported agricultural "progress" and sold the concept of marsh reclamation, or marsh subduing, to farmers as their big opportunity to make New England agriculture competitive with the burgeoning agricultural production to the west. Their goal was to raise upland crops (Hawes 1986) so coastal farmers were advised to reclaim their marshes by creating dikes to prevent tidal inundation of their marshland. The fertile marsh soils could then be used to plant vegetables and grains. The improvers believed that with each passing year farmers would realize greater success as the reclaimed marsh soil became less and less saline.

   Ditching was a possible alternative to diking. Many traditional marsh farmers chose this method of marsh subduing in attempts to continue haying since increased drainage of the high marsh initially resulted in increased salt hay production. Although ditching facilitated marsh drainage, its greatest benefit was that the fertile soil collected could be used to help fertilize other crops.

  Marsh reclamation turned out to be considerably more difficult than improvers and farmers had anticipated. Since the improvers did not understand the ecological or physical nature of the marsh ecosystem they were unable to foresee the negative impacts their improvements would have. Hydrological processes of coastal marshes were not well understood at the time and the process of salt marsh reclamation significantly altered tidal currents thus making it difficult to maintain the dikes. Furthermore, formation of the dikes resulted in the destruction of many of the organisms that were adapted to the marshes and this upset many local fishermen (Hawes 1986).
 

"Marshes could no longer serve as a nursery for juvenile stages of some fish and
 would no longer provide food for many larger predatory fish." (Hawes 1986)
    Although many of the "improvements" had failed, the desire for agricultural success had survived. Improvers had successfully transformed the public’s valuation of coastal marshes. As a result, increased losses of our coastal marshes would not be far behind.
 

This page was created by: Wendy Dalia
Last update: 5/26/98
Please note this page is under construction.

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