The Role of Adaptive Management in the Restoration Degraded Diked Salt Hay Farm Wetlands

The adaptive management philosophy was applied throughout the design and construction phases of a project to restore approximately 10,000 acres of degraded salt hay farm wetlands on the Delaware River Estuary. Adaptive management involves setting goals, monitoring a project, and then modifying intervention and management strategies to meet the goals. Fifty years of diking have reduced marsh plain elevations, obliterated tidal channels, reduced Spartina alterniflora and increased Phragmites australis in marshes on the Delaware River Estuary. The restoration goal is to obtain a mixed salt marsh ecosystem dominated by Spartina alterniflora but with significant areas of Spartina patens high marsh. This paper will explore the application of adaptive management to the project construction phase.