Roadmap and Restoration Projects Highlight Recent Work
Georgia has an estimated 368,000 acres of salt marsh along its coastline, which makes up more than a third of the connected marsh habitat corridor along the coast of the southeastern United States.
Salt marshes are vital to our coast, providing benefits such as storm-surge buffering, pollutant filtration, support for commercial fisheries, and carbon sequestration. However, they face growing threats from sea level rise, coastal development, and fragmentation. Georgia Conservancy leads efforts to protect and restore marshlands through the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative (SASMI), a multi-state partnership focused on their long-term resilience.
Our goal through this initiative is to protect and restore the health and functions of existing salt marshes, conserve marsh migration corridors, and remove or retrofit barriers such as sea walls, jetties, breakwaters, and bulkheads. Models projecting sea level rise across Georgia’s coast are clear: marshes need conserved areas in which they can migrate.
In February, Georgia Conservancy introduced the SASMI Roadmap for Georgia, which outlines a strategy for ongoing marsh conservation—including future migration pathways. Through the Roadmap, Georgia Conservancy has consolidated the efforts and knowledge of communities, field experts, and stakeholders to guide salt marsh protection with recommended actions and strategies.
In the Roadmap, Georgia Conservancy identifies key marsh migration areas to prioritize for conservation and recommends nature-based practices that facilitate marsh migration. By coordinating with and listening to community and stakeholder voices, we also identify current programs and partners addressing salt marsh issues across the state and recommend specific actions to address gaps in how to achieve salt marsh conservation goals in Georgia.
In concert with the Roadmap and guided by its strategies, Georgia Conservancy is currently leading several marsh conservation and restoration projects along our coast.
At Martha Randolph Stevens Park in Liberty County, Georgia Conservancy and partners are well into the construction of a living shoreline. As project leaders, we have worked with funding agencies, engineers, and state managers to design and construct an oyster-based living shoreline that will fix eroded areas, restore marsh vegetation and oyster reefs, and prevent future shoreline loss, allowing the Seabrook Village to safely use its community center, which sits just yards from the shoreline.
As part of the process, volunteers with the Georgia Conservancy, Seabrook Village Foundation, and UGA Marine Extension & Sea Grant salvaged and replanted Spartina salt marsh grass to use in the stabilization of the newly constructed living shoreline. After a volunteer service day in March to install bags of recycled oysters, we anticipate the project to be complete later this Spring.
By utilizing nature-based practices and enacting recommended strategies, programs, and projects, we can work together to “Marsh Forward” in Georgia and protect, restore, and conserve the benefits of these ecosystems for centuries.