Restoration

Wetlands provide numerous ecological and economic services that can be lost when wetlands are degraded. To revitalize habitat for fish and other coastal animals, water quality enhancement, shoreline erosion protection and many more services, it may be beneficial to restore wetland habitat. In its simplest term, restoration is returning the ecosystem back to its pre-disturbance condition. Restoration is accomplished through a wide variety of actions including protecting aquatic resources, avoiding non-native species, and restoring natural structure and function of an ecosystem that was lost.

The Division of Coastal Management developed a procedure for planning potential wetland restoration and enhancement sites. This procedure uses geographic information systems (GIS) maps to locate potential wetland restoration and enhancement sites. It also identifies the type of wetland that could be restored or enhanced as well as the type of disturbance that has occurred at each site. DCM is also developing a model to assess the functions these sites would potentially replace in a watershed. For more information on this mapping procedure please download our technical documents.