WETLANDS OF DISTINCTION
Paul S. Sarbanes Ecosystem Restoration Project at Poplar Island: Wetland of Distinction Bill Morgante1, Wetlands Administrator, Maryland Board of Public Works, Annapolis, MD
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he Paul S. Sarbanes Restoration at Poplar Island (Poplar Island) in the Chesapeake Bay (Figure 1) gained acceptance as a Wetland of Distinction (WoD) early in 2021. Poplar Island is not a typical WoD. Its adoption as the 46th WoD is unique due to its status as a restoration project. This restoration is exceptional in providing remote island wildlife habitat, especially for resident and migratory birds, opportunities for outreach and public education, and the preservation of local heritage. One of Poplar Island’s main goals is to restore remote island habitat within the Chesapeake Bay, in part because of its importance as a safe resting spot along the Atlantic flyway. The island’s location, one mile from the mainland, and the wildlife management on Poplar Island, make it a relatively predator-free destination to rest and nest. To better understand the rationale for restoring this distinctive island habitat, let’s examine the island’s history. In 1847, Poplar Island comprised more than 1,100 acres. During the early 1900s, the island supported a thriving town, Valliant, with approximately 100 residents; yet by the 1920s, residents began leaving the island as its landmass eroded. Though still used as a retreat in the 1930s and 1940s, including visits by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, by the early 1990s only 3–5 acres (1.2– 2 ha) of small islands and tidal mudflats remained. Poplar Island’s disappearance from sea-level rise, land subsidence, and erosion seemed imminent (Poplar Island Restoration website: http://www.poplarislandrestoration.com/). The 1975 Maryland General Assembly declared the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries a great natural asset and resource to the State and made open water placement of dredged material unlawful. Later in 1994, an interagency team from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District (USACE), Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Port Administration (MDOT MPA), and other federal and state environmental agencies penned an agreement committing to the beneficial use of clean, noncontaminated dredged material to restore Chesapeake Bay (Bay) island habitat. This included dredge material from the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the approach chanCorrespondence author contact: bill.morgante@maryland.gov
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nels to Baltimore Harbor – material that is tested to meet standards set forth by EPA for beneficial use. Following the necessary environmental studies, stakeholders decided that restoring Poplar Island could create significant remote island habitat, especially significant since valuable regional island habitat was disappearing rapidly. Estimates show that in the mid-Chesapeake Bay region, over 10,500 acres of this unique habitat has been lost in the last 150 years (Poplar Island Restoration website: http://www.poplarislandrestoration.com/).
FIGURE 1. Context map for Poplar Island (MDOT MPA)
