NOAA Volunteers Help Restore Historic Fort McHenry

Jennifer Koss
NOAA Fisheries Service (NMFS)

More than 60 NOAA volunteers joined NOAA Administrator Lautenbacher and Representative John Sarbanes to celebrate Earth Day at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. They removed countless bags of plastic, Styrofoam, glass, metal, rubber, and large pieces of woody debris from the wetland; planted trees along the marsh’s nature trail; maintained its butterfly garden; and broke ground on a new rain garden.

This event marks the ninth time NOAA volunteers have participated in the marsh clean up and restoration event. Over the past nine years they’ve collected an incredible amount of debris.

Pieces of Debris

NOAA’s history with the Fort McHenry wetland started with an initial grant to the National Aquarium in Baltimore in 1998 from the NOAA Fisheries Community-based Restoration Program. NOAA has since worked with the NAIB to plan and implement adaptive management measures to enhance the functioning of the marsh. The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) and the NOS National Geodetic Survey (NGS) were instrumental in helping to re-plumb the marsh, thereby creating a better hydrological flow through the wetland. The new design promotes regular, natural tidal flooding to the site, controls the accumulation of debris, and has enhanced its habitat value to plant and animal species.

In the past ten years,this unique urban marsh has become a wildlife magnet for everything from migratory birds to fish andmuskrat. Aquarium volunteershave logged over 240 species of birds every year that use the marsh tonest, forage, or just rest. Other more exotic urban wildlife also call the marsh home, if only temporarily, including the dozen or so young beaver whostop in the marsh every spring on their way downriver. NOAA looks forward to continuing to model good stewardship of our nation’s valuable ecosystems through the annual Ft. McHenry Restoration Day.

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