“You can see tons of birds just swooping in and out of the marsh, and it’s a really important spot in the middle of all of this industrial development,” said Sarah Crocker as she looked out over Lundrigan’s Marsh in St. John’s.
Crocker is a coordinator with the Northeast Avalon Atlantic Coastal Action Program (NAACAP).
That organization, along with members of Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador’s Green Team held an event on Saturday in an effort to encourage more public engagement around understanding the benefits and the plight of urban wetlands.
“Wetlands are considered valuable because they clean water, recharge water supplies, reduce flood risks, and provide fish and wildlife habitat,” states an informational placard at the lookout over the 80-acre marsh – one of the largest in Eastern Newfoundland and possibly the largest cattail marsh in the province.
At the start of the event, about a dozen people gathered at the lookout off East White Hills Road.
In 2004, the city signed a stewardship agreement to maintain the area as a wetland, but it faces development pressures.
“This is one of many urban wetlands in the city that has different development pressures, but we feel this is a big one – it has probably the most pressure,” said Nick White with NAACAP.
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The Green Team leader Elanor Dillabough said the marsh has been subjected to human intervention and environmental degradation over the years, decreasing its overall size.
Currently, the marsh is flanked by industrial operations off Logy Bay Road and East White Hills Road.
“The issue with wetlands is that they do get infilled bit by bit, and as they lose that connectivity to the larger waterways and watersheds, it becomes easier and easier for people to kind of make the case that they’re not important anymore,” said Crocker.
Dillabough said further encroachment is a concern for Lundrigan’s Marsh.
“It’s hard to keep borders as sturdy as they should be when there’s no fences and no one on the other side watching it happen, so we’re concerned about that,” she said, adding that the main goal of the Meet the Marsh event was to encourage the community “to care along with us.”
To that end, they reached at least one person, and possibly a future generation; Heather Madden visited the event with her one-year-old son and two-year-old daughter.
“It’s an important way for them to learn about taking care of what’s around you,” she said.
Twitter: @juanitamercer_
