2026 Maine Sustainability & Water conference

Thursday, March 26, 2026
Augusta Civic Center
Augusta, Maine

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Session E — Maine’s Wetlands: Freshwater and Tidal Ecosystems

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All Day Session

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Maine’s wetlands—from bogs to tidal marshes—are among the state’s most ecologically productive and culturally significant ecosystems. These landscapes store floodwaters, filter pollutants, recharge groundwater, support fisheries and wildlife, and provide climate resilience through carbon sequestration and buffering of storm surges. Wetlands do all of these things and more, but are often overlooked, viewed as obstacles to development, or sources of mosquito bites. 

We hope to generate enthusiasm for the protection, restoration, and better understanding of the ecological importance of these habitats, and recognize the great work happening throughout the state. This full-day session will highlight how practitioners evaluate, protect, and restore fresh and tidal wetlands, emphasizing their conservation challenges and the distinct strategies needed to ensure Maine has thriving wetlands into the future.

Speakers from state agencies, conservation organizations, and academic partners will introduce assessment tools and evaluation methods used across programs to understand wetland function, ecological condition, and resilience. Presentations will explore current restoration and protection approaches—including hydrologic restoration, wetland connectivity, freshwater buffering, and coastal migration pathways—along with emerging threats and science-based strategies to sustain wetland benefits. The session will also feature innovative citizen science and community engagement efforts such as the Maine Audubon/MEDEP “Marsh Explorers” citizen science project.

Session Overview

Morning Session

Afternoon Session

Session Presentations

Presenters are indicated in bold font.

Morning Session

8:30AM – 9:00AM

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Biological Assessments of Wetlands

Beth Connors, Doug Suitor, Jeanne L. DiFranco
Maine Department of Environmental Protection

This presentation will outline the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) approach to evaluating the ecological health and condition of wetland ecosystems across the state. We will describe how DEP’s Biological Monitoring Program incorporates biological data in the assessment of state water quality standards. The assessment methods include standardized sampling of macroinvertebrates and algae across the State using a rotating basin design. Predictive statistical models are employed to compare biological data to reference conditions and to assess attainment of narrative biological criteria (Classes AA/A, B, and C) and to help diagnose ecological stressors such as hydrologic and vegetative modifications, pollution, and watershed land-use changes. The Biological Monitoring Program is currently developing metrics based on the wetland plant (macrophyte) community with an eye towards incorporating them as an additional tool in the biological assessment of wetlands. The presentation will discuss the development of the plant community metrics.

9:00AM-9:30AM

When Marsh Migration Meets Property Lines: The Human Dimension of Coastal Adaptation

Melissa Godin (student), Caroline Noblet
University of Maine School of Economics

Tidal marsh migration is increasingly recognized as a key climate adaptation pathway, yet its feasibility often depends on decisions made parcel-by-parcel by the people who own adjacent uplands. Because marsh migration outcomes often require coordinated decisions across multiple properties, neighbor expectations and social norms can shape what feels acceptable or worthwhile when making decisions about your own property. Understanding these dynamics is especially important as larger, contiguous tracts of conserved land may yield greater ecological and flood-protection benefits. This presentation centers the human dimension of wetland conservation by linking geocoded survey responses from a survey of coastal Maine landowners (n=862) with spatial indicators of marsh visibility, elevation, and potential migration space. Unsurprisingly, we find that landowners at lower elevations are more likely to think that water will rise on their property and that new marsh will form. They are also more likely to report that they will not prevent rising water on their property and that they expect their neighbors to be less likely to prevent rising water as well. In contrast, coastal landowners with property at higher elevations are more likely to say that they think that their neighbors will use shoreline modifications in the next 5–10 years, and less likely to say that their neighbors will not prevent water from rising. Elevation does not meaningfully change the likelihood of choosing shoreline modification—an active response that typically requires time and money—on one’s own property. In ongoing work, we will examine whether these patterns vary across Maine’s coastal counties and estuary systems.

9:30AM-10:00AM

Maine Marsh Explorers: A Treasure Hunt to Find Healthy Freshwater Marshes in Maine

Mady Eori1, Sally Stockwell1, Tom Danielson2, Doug Suitor2
1. Maine Audubon
2. Maine Department of Environmental Protection

Maine Marsh Explorers is a new community science initiative from Maine Audubon and Maine DEP that trains volunteers to survey macroinvertebrates in freshwater marshes across Maine. With many macroinvertebrates sensitive to temperature, sediment, pollutants, and other environmental stressors, their presence or absence serve as an important indicator of overall wetland health. This project expands upon Maine Stream Explorers, a successful water quality monitoring project for Maine’s streams which has trained more than 150 volunteers to conduct over 100 surveys statewide. Marsh Explorers volunteers are trained in sampling techniques and identification through virtual webinars and in-person field trainings and then provided with survey kits that include protocols, identification guides, and all necessary sampling gear. Volunteers submit photos of collected macroinvertebrates and categorize species as sensitive, moderately sensitive, or tolerant to environmental stressors. This dataset then serves as a screening tool for Maine DEP to prioritize where more in-depth biomonitoring and water assessment surveys should be conducted. Along with providing important information about freshwater marsh health, the program also serves to promote better education and outreach about the importance of protecting Maine’s wetlands and their macroinvertebrate inhabitants. With volunteers ranging from young school groups to retirees, Marsh Explorers engages communities across Maine to learn something new, get outdoors, and stay connected to their local watersheds.

10:00AM-10:30AM

How Wetlands Are Made Available: Assessment, Governance, and Ecological Evidence from Coastal Maine

Holland Haverkamp (student)
University of Maine Ecology and Environmental Sciences Program

Wetlands are often described as multifunctional systems that provide flood control, water quality benefits, wildlife habitat, and climate buffering. In practice, however, how wetlands are recognized, assessed, and protected is shaped as much by governance structures and interpretive frameworks as by ecological conditions themselves. This presentation draws on dissertation research at Wassumkeag (Sears Island), a wetland- and forest-dominated island in coastal Maine proposed as the site of an onshore port for offshore wind development. The research combines ecological field data, including camera trap surveys and environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling across freshwater wetlands, with qualitative analysis of planning documents, advisory committee processes, and interviews with state officials, conservation practitioners, and community members. Rather than treating wetlands as discrete features, the work examines wetlands as relational landscapes connected to surrounding uplands, coastal waters, and long-standing human uses. Ecological findings highlight wetlands as sites of movement, buffering, and connectivity across the island, while governance analysis shows how regulatory and planning processes often narrow attention to jurisdictional boundaries, individual impact thresholds, or mitigation feasibility. These interpretive moves can make wetlands legible as developable or “manageable,” even when ecological evidence points to broader cumulative or landscape-scale concerns. The case highlights tensions among ecological knowledge, regulatory interpretation, and public participation, and suggests that effective wetland protection depends not only on better assessment tools, but on closer attention to how wetlands are framed, valued, and debated within decision-making processes.

Afternoon Session

1:30PM – 2:00PM

Tracking Maine’s Wetland Heritage

Kristen Puryear
Maine Natural Areas Program

For over 40 years the Maine Natural Areas Program (MNAP) has been knee-boot-deep in wetlands of all kinds, from alpine bogs to rich fens, saltmarshes to cedar swamps. Our Ecologists and Botanists have worked to describe and map rare and exemplary wetlands across the state, for the purpose of highlighting Maine’s incredible biodiversity and sharing the information with landowners, resource managers, towns, and conservation partners to inform protection, restoration, and management. In this talk we will share how MNAP, which is within the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, is also a Natural Heritage program, and part of a network of similar programs across the U.S. that share methods and contribute to national-level tracking of plant, animal, and habitat biodiversity. We will give examples of recent accomplishments, including statewide floodplain forest surveys, long term ecological monitoring of both freshwater and tidal wetlands, rare plant discoveries, and using machine learning to find small, hard to detect, but important wetlands in forested landscapes. MNAP’s work is a reliable source of objective and comprehensive information used to equip decision-makers with the necessary tools to make informed and responsible decisions. The data we collect on the ground inform Beginning with Habitat Focus Areas of Statewide Ecological Significance, are referenced in climate vulnerability reports, have been incorporated into the State Wildlife Action Plan, and are used to bolster fundraising efforts for conservation land. We hope to share our purpose, accomplishments, and at least a few good muck stories.

2:00PM-2:30PM

Collaborative Marsh Restoration: Insights from Sediment Metrics

Phoenix Susak1 (student), Julia Kemnitz2, Jon Woodruff1, Molly Autery1, Hannah Baranes3, Brian Yellen4
1. University of Massachusetts-Amherst
2. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
3. Gulf of Main Research Institute
4. Massachusetts Geological Survey

This research explores the long-term impacts of colonial-era modifications on the Cousins River marsh in Yarmouth and Freeport, Maine. Due to intricate levying systems and ditches implemented in early agricultural practices, the marsh remains flooded for prolonged periods following a 2010 increase in Mean High Water, leading to an increased loss of vegetated habitat. Restoration efforts to remediate high marsh pooling are in development and this project intends to compile monitoring results to inform these efforts. A collaborative approach is utilized with partners from academic, non-profit, municipal, state, and federal agencies united around effective marsh conservation.
Sedimentation rates calculated through isotopic and stratigraphic analysis reveal 275 years of accumulation trends highlighting key proxies for elucidating chronological horizons within sedimentary records. Key changes in biodiversity delineate periods of Indigenous settlement, colonization, and agricultural evolution. Remotely sensed water, quantified through time series of Modified Normalized Difference Water Index, and trends in tide gauge records provide necessary context for restoration efforts and insight into the observed 19 year nodal cycle. Sediment accumulation trends acquired through sediment traps generate models for minerogenic, vertical accretion vital to the marshes ability to keep pace with sea level rise. Modern sedimentation as a function of elevation is explored to delineate environmental and elevation conditions of time periods relevant to the Cousins River marsh. The importance of vegetation’s ability to trap sediment is demonstrated, further emphasizing the need to restore megapool conditions.

2:30PM-3:00PM

Afternoon Break (Auditorium)

3:00PM – 3:30PM

Integrating community input, GIS, and fieldwork to prioritize Kennebec Estuary tidal crossing restoration opportunities for their community and ecological benefits

Kyler Phillips, Ruth Indrick
Kennebec Estuary Land Trust

Undersized culverts and bridges degrade tidal marshes by restricting tidal exchange. Concurrently, low-lying coastal roads are vulnerable to flooding, impacting access to emergency services. Restoration projects that improve tidal flow and raise roads are critical opportunities to jointly increase the resilience of human and ecological communities; however, with over 1,500 potential crossings in Maine and project costs regularly exceeding $500,000, demand far exceeds available resources. To address this challenge on a regional scale, Kennebec Estuary Land Trust (KELT) is performing a prioritization of approximately 300 current or future tidal crossings in ten towns in Midcoast Maine. Facilitated discussions with road managers identified crossings in poor condition, current flooding locations, previously unidentified crossings, and community concerns. Building on an initial inventory of available geospatial datasets, we developed a manual of approximately 100 peer-reviewed, quantifiable geospatial metrics that assess community and ecological benefits, challenges, and logistical considerations associated with executing a restoration project at each site. Our methodology is focused on efficient methods for processing data across many crossings. Planned fieldwork will further investigate the highest priority sites. Site fact sheets will be developed and shared with community partners. Through the execution of site assessments and cultivation of community connections, this project is helping KELT serve as a trusted restoration resource for coastal communities, where demand for resiliency projects is mounting but capacity is limited. This work is a critical investment in increasing efficiency for securing funding, building project teams, and advancing projects to intervene at the highest priority marsh restoration sites.

3:30PM-4:00PM

Man-made physical, chemical and biological changes to Maine lake wetlands affecting ecosystems and water quality by lake level management: Sebago Lake and China Lake

Roger Wheeler1, Halsey W. Snow2
1. Friends of Sebago Lake
2. Sierra Club Maine

Over the past 40 – 50 years significant changes in river and lake hydrology has occurred as societal uses for inland water has shifted. Hydropower, transport of logs, and recreation have all changed. Transport of logs by rivers has virtually ended with recreation becoming the most dominant use today. The political and economic values of hydro-power on downstream rivers now pales in comparison to the influence exerted by recreational interests. River outflows have been reduced to insure lake elevations are maintained consistently at or near full pond levels, so that dock access is unimpeded and boating recreation is maintained in formerly shallow or dry areas throughout the recreational season.

Lake levels are no longer allowed to follow the historical seasonal cycle of lower levels in the summer and fall, which is critical for wetland flora and fauna. Inter-annual variability has been stifled, and the annual range of lake levels has been significantly reduced. This presentation will address some of the resulting impacts to Maine’s lake wetlands and the water continuum. Background research and analysis include a Wetland Study presented to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for re-licensing of Sebago Lake’s Eel Weir dam by SAPPI, a 2008 review and visit to Sebago Lake by Douglas Wilcox, former USGS Chief and Great Lakes wetlands scientist, and a China Lake Wetland Study by Bud Brown of Eco-Anaylsts.

4:00PM – 4:30PM

Maine Tidal Marsh Restoration Network – Networking