Delaware Wetlands logo
WMAP Blog


Facebook  Twitter  Instagram  YouTube  RSS Feed

living-shorelines

Rising Seas in the Mid-Atlantic

Written on: March 5th, 2020 in Living ShorelinesOutreachWetland Restorations

Although it is happening around the world, there are some spots that are being affected more than others. The Mid-Atlantic Coast—including Delaware—is experiencing one of the highest rates of sea level rise in the U.S, second only to the Gulf Coast.


Read More

uncategorized

Wetlands and their Plant Invaders

Written on: December 11th, 2019 in Outreach

You don’t have to own 20 acres of flooded fields to make a difference! There are many common wetland stressors that are not an easy fix, such as ditching and channel straightening but addressing invasive plants is a great place to start.


Read More

wetland-restorations

Riparian Forest Buffers

Written on: December 10th, 2019 in Wetland Restorations

Riparian buffers are planted areas specifically next to waterways, such as streams, ponds, wetlands, and rivers. These areas are extremely important to keeping our waters healthy.  They do so by filtering and trapping nutrients and sediment out of waters before they enter our local waterways.


Read More

uncategorized

Spartina: A Name of the Past

Written on: December 5th, 2019 in Outreach

When we think of Delaware’s coastlines, nothing comes to mind quite like the beautiful, expansive marshes full of saltmarsh cordgrass blowing in the gentle sea breeze. Our team has become especially well-acquainted with this grass, known by most as Spartina alterniflora, as we have visited hundreds of tidal wetland sites over the years.


Read More

living-shorelines

Sassafras Landing: A living shoreline demonstration

Written on: September 16th, 2019 in Living Shorelines

On a warm July morning not long after the official start of summer, some 2 dozen volunteers gathered at Sassafras Landing, an unimproved boat launch popular with kayakers and duck hunters inside the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Assawoman Wildlife Area (AWA) near Frankford. Their mission: transplant nearly 5,200 plugs of native marsh grass onto what otherwise appeared to be a pristine white sand beach.


Read More

uncategorized

Piedmont vs. Coastal Plain Wetlands: A tale of two regions

Written on: September 16th, 2019 in Outreach

If you spend a lot of time traveling around Delaware, you’ll notice that northern Delaware is very different from the rest of the state. That’s because Delaware is made up of two distinct geologic regions. The northernmost part of Delaware is within the Piedmont region, while the rest of Delaware lies within the Coastal Plain region.


Read More

wetland-assessments

Confessions of Seasonal: Everlasting impressions

Written on: September 16th, 2019 in Wetland Assessments

Wetlands work is not for the faint of heart. I won’t sugar coat it for you. Its dirty. Its messy. Oftentimes pretty buggy (even though we really lucked out this year). Yep. Wetlands can be all of those things. But – they are also so much more.


Read More

wetland-assessments

Pole Replacement Spawns Marsh Recovery Data

Written on: September 6th, 2019 in Wetland Assessments

When a power company needed to replace a utility pole in a wetland area that was a part of a national vegetation monitoring program within the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve (DNERR), staff at the Reserve worked closely with the power company and with other state agencies to maintain the integrity of the datasets being collected, but also took the opportunity to begin a study on how the marsh would recover naturally from the disturbance.


Read More

uncategorized

Wetlands are Magicians of Water Quality Improvement

Written on: May 15th, 2019 in Outreach

by Alison Rogerson, Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program In our Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program we speak so often about the ecosystem services that wetlands provide or the beneficial functions wetlands perform daily.  We rattle them off in varying order “provide vital habitat for plants and wildlife, improve water quality, protect our coasts, act like […]


Read More

wetland-animals

Delaware’s Freshwater Mussels

Written on: May 14th, 2019 in Wetland Animals

Guest writer: Clare Sevcik, DNREC’s Nonpoint Source Program There are so many charismatic animals that make Delaware waterways their home. Most people living in Delaware can easily recognize a few of the most popular species: bald eagles, osprey, blue crabs, horseshoe crabs, beavers, river otters, and many more. But there are many more animals living […]


Read More
+