Wildlife Returns to Jamaica Bay as Elders Point East and West are Restored

By JoAnne Castagna

A few years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and partnering agencies restored Elders Point East, a degraded marsh island in Jamaica Bay. Last summer, Melissa D. Alvarez, senior project biologist with the Army Corps' NY District was inspecting the island.

"I saw movement in the water as the tide was draining one of the creeks," she said. "I looked closer and saw something I've never seen there. There were dozens of juvenile horseshoe crabs swimming within the tidal creek. They were the size of a quarter, but this meant so much more. It means that the restored island is now providing successful breeding for horseshoe crabs."

Later in the year, Ms. Alvarez (below right) found a nest of Diamondback Terrapins (left), a New York State protected species. It was another sign of the success of the Elders Point East restoration.

With success on East, the Army Corps and partnering agencies began last fall to restore the adjacent island, Elders Point West. The project was completed last week.

A marsh is a low-lying wetland with grassy vegetation usually found in a transitional area between land and water. Elders Point East and West are a marsh islands within the 26-square mile Jamaica Bay Park and Wildlife Refuge that was the country's first national urban park and is one of the Gateway National Recreation Areas. The island complex was once a single 132-acre island named Elders Point, but years of degradation split the land into separate islands that are now connected by muddy land.

Jamaica Bay's once vibrant marsh islands have deteriorated extensively over the last century, disappearing at a rate of 44 acres per year and faster in the last decade. If the degradation is not halted it is estimated that the marsh islands could disappear by 2012. Today, however, a restored Elders Point East measures 49 acres, joined by West's 34 newly restored acres.

According to Ms. Alvarez and other scientists, maintaining the health of the Jamaica Bay ecosystem is critical to the well being not only of wildlife but of the 20 million people that live and work in this urban region. "On a smaller scale, the marsh islands are a home for a variety of wildlife, including fish and shellfish, which are an important food source for birds and help improve water quality by removing things like nitrogen and phosphates," said Ms. Alvarez. "From a larger perspective, the marsh islands provide stability and water storage during storm and flood events. The islands also act as filters as the plants capture and cycle particles out of the water. By restoring Elders Point and other marsh islands, we may even protect the more interior islands and hopefully slow their erosion."

To restore these islands, the Army Corps teamed up with the National Park Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Port Authority of NY/NJ, and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. They began work in 2006, pumping 250,000 cubic yards of dredged sand onto Elders Point East and shaping it to simulate the proper elevations of a marsh island. Then they hand-planted native plant species that included saltmarsh cordgrass, salt hay, and spike grass that were grown from seed collected within Jamaica Bay. The sand came from the Army Corps' beneficial reuse program that uses dredged sand from New York Harbor and area waterways to rebuild habitats. In the past, this sand would have been dumped into the ocean.

West was restored in a similar -- but improved -- manner. The team had learned, for example, that sand settles differently according to the mud/sand composition of the ground it's dumped on. Sand placed atop mud will settle more; sand atop sand will settle less. Knowing when they began to restore Elders Point West, the team was able to better distribute 240,000 cubic yards of dredged sand for optimal planting elevations (photo at left). The team also learned from the East restoration that the slopes of the sand need to be more gradual in order to prevent erosion, and that relocation of existing plants is as effective as purchasing nursery-grown plants.

Will the Army Corps and their partnering agencies return to Jamaica Bay? Mark Lulka, project manager for the NY District of the Army Corps, Harbor Branch expects restoration to continue. "As we obtain additional experience and funding, we hope to build a few other marsh islands as the years go by," he said.

Marsh island restoration within Jamaica Bay advances the goals of the Hudson Raritan Estuary Comprehensive Restoration Plan. The primary goal of the plan is to develop a mosaic of habitats that provides maximum ecological and societal benefits to the region. This plan was developed in partnership with the Army Corps' NY District and a diverse group of more than 60 organizations and stakeholders. To learn more about the Hudson Raritan Estuary Comprehensive Restoration Plan and the Elders Point Restoration projects, please visit www.TheWatersWeShare.org.

Dr. JoAnne Castagna is a technical writer-editor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, NY District. She can be reached at joanne.castagna@usace.army.mil.

Credits: All photos (except bottom photo) by US Army Corps of Engineers, NY District. Bottom photo: Galvin Brothers, Inc.