Environmental Agencies Continue Tidmarsh Restoration Efforts

COURTESY OF MASS AUDUBON

PLYMOUTH – A habitat restoration project 15 years in the making has returned thousands of fish including alewife and blueback herring to the former Tidmarsh Farms cranberry bog in Plymouth.

As the industry declined in Massachusetts in the early 2000s the owners, Glorianna Davenport and Evan Schulman began to envision turning the bog into a 600-acre sanctuary to never be developed, that would also serve as a living research laboratory for college students.

Davenport reached out to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which previously worked to restore another bog. Over time, NOAA, the state and Plymouth joined the restoration effort.

Tidmarsh East became a high-priority project for the Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration in 2011.

Sand that could not be removed was used to shape mounds and gullies and excavators dug three miles of new stream channel.

The water, which previously flowed through straight, man-made channels, now flows more slowly at a cooler temperature ideal for fish.

Thousands of trees were also brought in and dams and barriers were removed. Mass Audubon is in the process of purchasing the parcel and establishing a sanctuary.

The town of Plymouth purchased the Tidmarsh West parcel this year and hopes to begin restoration next year.

The project has already restored 225 acres of wetland habitat.

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