Rhode Island Tucked among rocky headlands, along tidal rivers and behind barrier beaches, salt marshes are essential to the quality of New England's coastal environment.
Salt marshes provide critical habitat for fish, birds and other animals.
They filter pollutants and buffer the effect of storms and floods on coastal communities. Over the past several centuries, however, New England's marshes have been ravaged by agriculture, development, and mosquito control. Because so many tidal wetlands have been lost, each remaining acre is all the more valuable. The restoration of degraded wetlands offers an opportunity to return vital wetland functions to coastal ecosystems. By returning tidal flow to the Sachuest Salt Marsh, the project will re-establish the wetland's ecological connection with the waters of Narragansett Bay.