People have dredged accumulated sediment from parts of the Chesapeake Bay for more than 100 years. This action enables boat access to onshore areas and areas of greater depth. In order to keep navigation channels open in a highly dynamic, sediment-rich system such as the Chesapeake Bay, it is necessary periodically to dredge channels of sediments that accumulate from either natural or human-induced processes. But what do we do with the large volume of material that is removed? Estuarine and marine sediments can be used as a resource for island restoration, marsh creation and enhancement, shoreline stabilization, and other beneficial uses. The potential exists—given proper conditions, suitable material, and adequate planning—to use this material to enhance the overall Bay ecosystem through habitat restoration.

NOAA is involved in all phases of dredging plans, from charting for needs evaluation, to proposal review for environmental protection, to assisting with monitoring to ensure compliance and protection for sensitive resources. Traditionally, dredged material has been dumped in open water or onshore as fill. NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office is involved in seeking viable alternatives to traditional dredge material placement strategies that can provide a win-win solution, where the nation’s navigable waterways are maintained, while at the same time protecting and—where possible—enhancing coastal and aquatic habitat. Uses can include wetland creation or augmentation, island restoration, base material for oyster reefs, and shoreline restoration.

One of the projects that NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office has been involved in is the restoration of Poplar Island. This massive 1,100+ acre restoration of historic mid-Bay island is occurring as a result of the need to place millions of cubic yards of dredged material from Maryland’s portion of the Bay over the next 20 years. The project to reconstruct Poplar Island to its size in about 1847 using uncontaminated dredged material from the Baltimore Harbor and Channels federal navigation project has been developed through the cooperative efforts of many state and federal agencies and private organizations.

Aerial photo enhanced to show the dike surrounding the historic Poplar Island footprint. Over time, dredged material will placed inside the diked area to restore habitat.

This project is an environmentally beneficial solution to the dredged material placement problems facing the Port of Baltimore. The Port estimates that over the next 20 years, maintenance dredging, coupled with needed improvements to the Bay's shipping channels, could generate as much as 100 million cubic yards of dredged material. Island restoration would create 1,110 acres of wildlife habitat by placing, shaping, and planting approximately 38 million cubic yards of dredged material. The habitat created would include approximately 555 acres each of intertidal wetland and upland habitat. The material would be dredged during maintenance of the southern approach channels to Baltimore Harbor and placed behind containment dikes at the project site. The plan includes a 35,000-foot perimeter dike surrounding the four remaining remnants of Poplar Island and protecting the south end of Coaches Island.

The complex of upland, wetland, near-shore, and shoal habitats that will result from the restored island will offer a diversity of habitat resources. The project design includes development of 50% wetland and 50% upland habitat. Of the wetlands, 80% will be developed as low marsh and 20% as high marsh. Small upland islands, ponds, and channels will be created to increase habitat diversity within the marsh areas. It is expected that habitat diversity will be increased in the upland areas by constructing small ponds and providing both forested and relatively open scrub/shrub areas.