There are many studies required before any restoration technique can used in a tidal wetland. The fieldwork includes: a historic aerial analysis, cultural/indigenous land use history, topographic/bathymetric surveys, habitat assessment (marsh plants, fish, shellfish), tidal monitoring/datum, resource delineation, sediment/geotechnical characterization, vegetative/benthic/bio benchmark survey.
The goal is to create a sustainable plan to build up the tidal marshland and barrier spit dunes to outpace sea level rise. Our tidal wetlands are drowning due to sea level rise and our sand dunes and shoreline have been eroded by storms. A living shoreline technique called Thin Layer Placement (TLP) may be the most desirable technique to save our tidal estuary, but we won’t know until the studies are completed. Other living shoreline techniques may come into play such as oyster habitats, plantings, or wave energy reduction.
There will outreach from both STS and ACCA to keep the community engaged throughout this process, including 4 school field trips, 5 public meetings, a project website, and a celebratory event.
ACCA will continue to lobby the Town of Fairfield to use sand from their dredging operations in the channel that leads to the South Benson marina as a source of sand for beach replenishment at Ash Creek and for thin layer placement on our marshlands. In the past, the sand has gone to Jennings Beach. The Town of Fairfield indicated that the sand from the next channel dredging would go to Ash Creek when we met with them in 2022.
