Bulletin Series
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
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Restoration of an Urban Salt Marsh:
An Interdisciplinary Approach
JOSEPH A. MILLER AND JANE COPPOCK, BULLETIN SERIES EDITORS
DAVID G. CASAGRANDE, VOLUME EDITOR
Yale University
New Haven , Connecticut • 1997
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 
The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Bulletin Series, begun in 1912, issues faculty and student
monographs, symposia and workshop proceedings, and other reports on an occasional basis. To order copies of this
or other Yale F&ES Bulletins, contact:
F&ES Bulletin Series
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
205 Prospect Street
New Haven CT 06511
USA
http://www.yale.edu/forestry/publications
e-mail: jane.coppock@yale.edu
Volume Editor David G. Casagrande
Bulletin Series Editors Joseph A. Miller and Jane Coppock
Illustrations Doreen Gayer and Donna Gayer
Design R. Richard Solaski
Cover West Rock (1849), by Frederic Edwin Church, From the Collection of the New Britain Museum
of American Art, Connecticut, John B. Talcott Fund, Photograph by E. Irving Blomstrann
Production Yale University RIS Publishing
Paper Mohawk Superfine Soft White satin,  lb. text, recycled, acid free
Partially funded by the Long Island Sound License Plate Program.
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
Additional Funding
Connecticut Sea Grant College Program
Norcross Wildlife Foundation
Bulletin Number 
ISSN
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CODEN BYSSDM
© Yale University
Permission is granted to reproduce this volume without prior written consent.
Abstracts of this Bulletin and additional data are available on the Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems’ web page at http://
www.yale.edu/forestry/CCWS.
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
4
PREFACE
5
INTRODUCTION
7
SECTION I: SOCIAL CONTEXT
12
The Full Circle: A Historical Context for Urban Salt Marsh Restoration
David Casagrande
13
Contingent Valuation of an Urban Salt Marsh Restoration
Matthew Udziela and Lynne Bennett
41
Values, Perceptions, and Restoration Goals
David Casagrande
62
Predicting the Social Impacts of Restoration in an Urban Park
Christina Page
76
SECTION II: ECOLOGICAL AND HYDROLOGICAL CONTEXT
102
The Hydrologic Structure and Function of the West River Marsh
Paul Barten and William Kenny
103
Soils, Sediments, and Contamination
Richard Orson, William Price, and Sasha Weinstein
123
Ecological Context and Vegetation Restoration
Richard Orson, Lauren Brown, and Penelope Sharp
136
SECTION III: BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
151
Benthic Invertebrates of the Lower West River
Carmela Cuomo and Gabriele Zinn
152
Aquatic Insects of the West River and Salt Marshes of Connecticut
Raymond Pupedis
162
Fish Communities as Indicators of Environmental Quality in the West River Watershed
Jon Moore, Arthur Lew, John Cunningham, and Michael Kachuba
178
Amphibians and Reptiles of the Lower West River
William West and David Skelly
197
Using Avian Communities to Evaluate Salt Marsh Restoration
Celia Lewis and David Casagrande
204
Mammals of West River Memorial Park
Harvey Smith
237
SECTION IV: SYNTHESIS
253
The Human Component of Urban Wetland Restoration
David Casagrande
254
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Acknowledgments
An interdisciplinary, multi-institutional effort such as this owes
thanks to a great number of people and organizations. Emly
McDiarmid, Program Director, and Gaboury Benoit, Faculty
Director, of the Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems at Yale
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES), and Jared
Cohon, Dean of Yale F&ES, provided the institutional framework
necessary for this project.
For providing financial support, we are grateful to the Connecticut
Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Long Island Sound
License Plate Program, the Connecticut Sea Grant College Program,
the Norcross Wildlife Foundation, and Yale F&ES.
For their institutional assistance, we are also grateful to the Cities
of New Haven and West Haven and their mayors, John DeStefano
and Richard Borer, the Connecticut Botanical Society, the Connecticut
DEP, the Connecticut Entomological Society, the Connecticut Tennis
Foundation, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U. S. National
Park Service’s Olmsted Archives, the New Haven Land Trust, the Town
of Fairfield, Connecticut, and the U. S. Forest Service.
To those who assisted us in the field, generously shared their
ideas, knowledge and advice, reviewed manuscripts, and supported
our work in many other ways we thank: Diana Balmori, Michael
Barker, Jennifer Beck, William Burch, Paul Capotosto, Guido,
Dorothy, and Thomas Casagrande, Tim Clark, Heather Crawford,
Christina Cromley, John Cunningham, Peter Davis, Jenny Dickson,
Gordon Evans, Carolyn Falls, Lynne Favour, Joy Ford, Donna Gayer,
Bob Gilmore, Karyn Gilvarg, Robert Gregan, Donna Hall, James
Hill, William Jordan III, Carol Kasper, Pam Kressman, Carol Kinzler,
Aimlee Laderman, Vin LaVorgna, Eric Lazo-Wasem, Michael Ludwig,
William Martin, Nicole Morganthaler, Leonard Munstermann, Lara
Nachiem, Alvin Novick, Kate O’Brien, Diane Palmeri, Christopher
Percy, Jerry Poole, Noble Proctor, David Reher, Charles Remington,
Arthur Rocque, Jr., Ron Rozsa, Pat Rubano, Oswald Schmitz, Tom
Steinke, Mitchell Truwit, Frank Williams, and Roman Zajac.
Joe Miller and Jane Coppock provided invaluable editorial
support. Doreen and Donna Gayer illustrated this Bulletin. Russell
Shaddox provided graphic and production assistance.
David G. Casagrande
Volume Editor
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Preface
This is an exceptionally informative, innovative, and relevant
Bulletin in a number of important respects, all captured by its carefully chosen title. Of critical and timely significance is its interdisciplinary approach. The restoration of damaged and disturbed
environments represents more than a technical challenge. We cannot,
of course, accomplish ecological restoration lacking basic biophysical
knowledge and management tools. Yet, these technical and scientific
issues represent only the beginning of the restoration task, typically
omitting the necessity of precisely identifying what we are trying to
accomplish, articulating a compelling vision of this goal, and developing a comprehensive methodology for achieving this end.
These latter considerations inevitably require the additional
knowledge and practice of a wide range of disciplines, including
economics, sociology, political science, and others. We must confront,
for example, the basic question of just what we are hoping to restore.
This latter consideration ultimately constitutes a question of values,
a determination of what attributes of worth and benefit from nature
we are striving to restore and render available to people and society.
This issue becomes especially prominent when trying to restore
damaged environments where large numbers of people live, most
particularly in the modern city. Whenever large numbers of people
are involved, we must address in specific, persuasive, and precise
ways that goods and services are provided by restored environments,
as well as the costs and sacrifices people may be required to make to
achieve this end. We must also recognize that restoration cannot be
accomplished lacking the understanding, appreciation, and support
of local communities. At the least, this necessitates a deep and sympathetic knowledge of the characteristics, interests, attitudes, and
needs of varying human populations.
An additionally important facet of this Bulletin is its focus on
the modern city. In my opinion, one of the tragic assumptions of
contemporary life is the widespread belief that city people no
longer require an abundant, diverse, and healthy natural environment to lead lives rich in satisfaction and meaning. Most urban
dwellers are repeatedly reminded of the presumed unimportance
of nature in the urban context. Environmental considerations are
routinely omitted from matters of urban building design, siting
decisions, road building, industrial development, shopping center
construction, and various other land and water planning and
In my opinion, one of the tragic
assumptions of contemporary life is the
wide-spread belief that city people no
longer require an abundant, diverse,
and healthy natural environment to lead
lives rich in satisfaction and meaning.
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management choices. The average developer and politician typically
views with indifference remaining pockets of open space, and often
regards environmental expenditures as the lowest of budgetary
priorities. Likewise, few city officials recognize the links between a
city’s long-term economic and social viability and the quality of its
natural landscape.
For reasons beyond explaining in this preface, these assumptions
are false and ultimately self-defeating. The long-term health and
vitality of the modern city will depend on opportunities for affiliating
with nature in aesthetically attractive, ecologically sound, and materially sustainable ways. The prevailing urban malaise of widespread
air and water pollution, habitat destruction, and denaturalized environments represents neither a necessary nor an inevitable reality. This
Bulletin, thus, constitutes a commendable and important attempt to
point the way toward identifying how damaged and degraded natural
areas can be restored within the context of striving for more economically, socially, and psychologically rewarding urban neighborhoods and communities.
Finally, this Bulletin’s emphasis on restoring wetland environments is significant. Most cities occur along aquatic habitats such as
rivers, lakes, and seashores. This prevalence reflects the many fundamental ways wetland ecosystems provide people with a wide range
of physical, material, emotional, intellectual, and even spiritual
benefits and opportunities. These aquatic environments offer a
geographically organizing way for people to connect physically and
visually with their natural landscapes. In New Haven, this feature is
especially revealed by its three rivers converging at the city’s estuarine harbor on the Long Island Sound. By focusing on the restoration of wetland habitats, this Bulletin emphasizes not only reviving
important environmental services, but also a means for urban people
to improve their emotional and intellectual connection with a city’s
most salient natural feature.
The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies is especially
proud to be associated with this pioneering effort. This Bulletin
reflects the interdisciplinary, problem solving character of our
School, as well as our location in an urban environment. The School
has projects on every continent, and prides itself on its long history
of national and international scholarship and professional activity.
Yet, we regard the work on the West River in New Haven as central
to the mission and long-term impact and relevance of our School.
Stephen R. Kellert
Professor of Social Ecology
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
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Introduction
The great 19th century landscape architect, Frederick Law
Olmsted, envisioned cities with park systems designed to rejuvenate
weary urbanites and bring social classes together. In 1910, Cass
Gilbert and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. released their Civic Improvement Plan for New Haven, Connecticut – an industrial city on the
New England Coast (Fig. 1). The philosophy of the senior Olmsted
was evident in the plan, which included a recommendation for a
series of contiguous parks to be located along New Haven’s West
River, a tidal tributary of Long Island Sound. Park development was
to provide open space and eradicate the salt marshes that dominated
the area. Tide gates installed at the southern end of what would
become West River Memorial Park (Fig. 2) were intended to reduce
mosquitoes and reclaim the land upstream. Later, a long straight
channel was dredged through the length of the park to create a pool
reminiscent of that in front of the Washington Monument. Dredge
spoil was deposited on the marsh to create upland recreation area.
The tide gates, which restricted the flow of salt water and tidal fluctuation, combined with the dredge spoil dumping, successfully
eradicated the salt marsh in the park.
Figure 1. New Haven on the New England Coast.
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Figure 2. West River Memorial Park (white) and other features along the West River in New
Haven and West Haven, Connecticut.
Unfortunately, the vision of West River Memorial Park as an
area of spiritual rejuvenation and social integration was not
achieved. The amount of dredge spoil was insufficient to create
uplands. The result was an ecological no-man’s land dominated by
dense stands of common reed (Phagmites australis), which form
visual and physical barriers to the water. The park now serves to
segregate neighborhoods.
Many urban salt marshes have met similar fates resulting in
degradation of habitat, water quality, and quality of human life.
Now, we are in the midst of a national movement to restore such
degraded wetlands. Connecticut’s natural resource managers and
researchers have been among the pioneers of salt marsh restoration.
In this Bulletin, we draw upon this experience to expand the scope
of restoration ecology to include the social realm, using West River
Memorial Park as a case study.
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Humans rely on ecosystems for their survival. In our culture this
requires large inputs of energy and nutrients by humans to re-direct
ecological processes, as in the case of agriculture. Restoration could
be defined as restoring ecological processes suited to a landscape’s
climate, topography, geology, and hydrology, that provide human
benefits with minimal inputs. The human/salt marsh relationship of
the colonial period provides an example of humans benefiting from
the ecosystem with minimal inputs. The exact colonial relationship
cannot be recreated because the ecological and social contexts have
changed. However, the authors in this Bulletin suggest that it is possible to recreate a system in the West River that provides increased
human benefits with minimal inputs by restoring ecological processes.
Ecological restoration that explicitly includes a human component
requires an interdisciplinary approach, including biophysical and
social science. This Bulletin presents a case study in which researchers
were free to explore across academic paradigms to investigate the
human-environment relationship.
Interest in an interdisciplinary approach to the West River restoration project grew from the West River Symposium held by the
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies’ Center for
Coastal and Watershed Systems (CCWS) in October 1994, with
funding provided by the Connecticut Department of Environmental
Protection’s (CT DEP) Long Island Sound License Plate Program.
The symposium brought community leaders together with a diverse
group of academics and natural resource managers to discuss potential river improvements within a watershed context. Hydrological
research by Paul Barten and William Kenny that began in 1992
(Kenny and Barten 1993) provided a firm foundation for discussion.
The gathering produced imaginative ways that restoration could
breach disciplines to achieve ecological and social improvements
(McDiarmid et al. 1995). With support from the Connecticut
Department of Environmental Protection and other sponsors (see
acknowledgments), CCWS brought together a team of researchers
who began conducting a biological and social inventory of the lower
West River watershed in 1995.
As the first step of an interdisciplinary approach to restoration of
an urban wetland, this Bulletin presents the development of a baseline
scenario. Sociologists, economists, biologists, hydrologists, landscape
architects and ecologists provide the context in which community
leaders can work with natural resource managers to establish restoration goals and methods for monitoring success. The baseline data
presented here also provide an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the role of humans as components of ecosystems using an experimental approach to restoration.
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This Bulletin is important because it addresses a degraded tidal
marsh in the heart of an urban environment. Until recently, most
salt marsh restoration has occurred in areas with lower human
population density where ecological functions such as wildlife
habitat and biomass production are more easily restored. Also,
non-urban communities have been more likely to request restoration
projects. This is unfortunate because most salt marsh degradation
and eradication in the northeast U.S. have occurred in urban areas.
Also, restoration benefits such as improved aesthetics, recreation,
mosquito control, and pollution remediation would have the
greatest impact in areas of high human population density.
The proximity of urban human communities to the marsh
complicates restoration, but it also provides opportunities. There
is a growing recognition of the need to incorporate humans, their
values, and their behavior in ecosystem analysis (McDonnell and
Pickett 1993). Until recently, the success of restoration has been
determined primarily by measurements of vegetation. Early attempts
to include other disciplines were generally limited to monitoring
vertebrates such as birds, with some studies monitoring macroinvertebrates. More recently, researchers (e.g., Kentula et al. 1993,
and authors in this Bulletin) have argued that restoration success is
better judged using measurements of ecosystem function such as
primary productivity, indices of biotic integrity, or survival rates of
certain species. Equally important are the effects of restoration on
human communities.
Because this is a preliminary investigation of an on-going project,
not all disciplines are represented in equal detail. In some cases (e.g.,
insects and mammals) sampling was limited to the taxa most likely
to be impacted by restoration. As such, tables and appendices are
not meant to be definitive species lists and not all ecological parameters regarding water quality, soils, and human behavior were available at publication. Nevertheless, the information included is adequate
for deciding which functions are desirable for restoration and what
parameters are appropriate for monitoring.
Caution is also advised for interpreting the biological and social
data because of the small sampling period, which was mostly limited
to 1995 and 1996. 1995 was the third consecutive year of rainfall well
below average. The data, therefore, reflect anomalous conditions
associated with reduced stream flow and a corresponding increase in
salinity. Also, the tide gates were not functioning properly because
floating debris had accumulated and prevented the gates from closing completely. This increased water salinity within the park.
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These events illustrate the need for long term monitoring. They
also exemplify some of the factors that contribute to the instability
and unpredictability of the system in its current condition, a situation that likely suppresses biological diversity as well as recreation
opportunities. However, the data from 1995 do provide a limited
preview of early salt marsh restoration including anglers targeting
salt marsh species and salt marsh organisms colonizing the proposed
restoration area.
Frederick Olmsted could be considered the first applied social
ecologist because he attempted to manipulate landscapes to improve
social conditions. Unfortunately, he lived during the peak of the
industrial revolution when man was considered the agent through
which God could improve on nature. During the century that has
followed Olmsted’s death, we have been humbled by the vast complexities of ecosystems and the unanticipated effects of altering
ecological processes. We have also accrued sufficient knowledge of
ecological and social processes to attempt anew experiments such as
those initiated by Olmsted. This Bulletin presents an interdisciplinary approach for inquiry intended to deepen our understanding of
humans as components of ecosystems.
David G. Casagrande
Volume Editor
New Haven, Connecticut
REFERENCES
Kenny, W. L., and P. K. Barten. 1993. A Study of the West River to determine the potential for a salt marsh
restoration. Project report to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Coves and
Embayments Program. New Haven, CT: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Kentula, M. E., R. P. Brooks, S. E. Gwin, C. C. Holland, A. D. Sherman, and J. C. Sifneos. 1993. An approach
to improving decision making in wetland restoration and creation. U. S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Environmental Research Laboratory, Corvallis, OR.
McDiarmid, E., P. K. Barten, and C. J. Genshlea, editors. 1995. Proceedings of the West River Symposium.
Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New
Haven, CT.
McDonnell, M. J., and S. A. Pickett, editors. 1993. Humans as components of ecosystems: The ecology of subtle
human effects and populated areas. New York: Springer-Verlag.
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