{"id":100,"date":"2026-04-06T15:52:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/?p=100"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:52:28","slug":"wading-my-way-through-salt-marsh-science-and-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/2026\/04\/06\/wading-my-way-through-salt-marsh-science-and-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Wading\u00a0My Way\u00a0Through\u00a0Salt Marsh Science and Restoration\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tiare Sierra Rivera, Ecological Restoration Fellow\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo by Isabelle Lam\u00a0at Plum Island Sound in September 2024. Tiare is pictured\u00a0in the middle, in yellow, with Prof.\u00a0Fagherrazzi, in green, taking a picture of the moment.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not too long ago, I stepped into a salt marsh for the first time.  It was a warm and sunny September day, and I was a senior at Boston University taking a class, \u201cEstuaries and Nearshore Systems,\u201d with Professor Sergio Fagherrazzi\u2014a big name in the salt marsh world for his work on marsh morphodynamics during accelerated sea level rise. As part of the class, we headed out to Plum Island Sound, the largest estuarine ecosystem in New England, to collect elevation and sediment data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was wonderful: the bright\u00a0green\u00a0grasses rolled\u00a0toward the horizon, the deep blue of the ocean pushed\u00a0in and out with this quiet-but-powerful rhythm, and then\u2026 the smell. A strong, putrid,\u00a0decomposing\u00a0peat-meets-salt\u00a0smell.\u00a0And yet, paired with the stunning scene and fascinating science at hand, I loved it. By the time I got home, my camera roll had 40\u00a0new photos\u2014horseshoe crabs, mud patterns, pickleweed, everything. I had never seen a salt marsh\u00a0before, since\u00a0we\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have them back home in Puerto Rico. Maybe that\u2019s\u00a0why it felt so magical. But I also\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0help thinking:\u00a0How have I lived in Boston for three years and no one has ever mentioned these places to me?<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\u00a0the last day of\u00a0the\u00a0class,\u00a0Professor\u00a0Fagherrazzi\u00a0awarded me the\u00a0\u201cCrab Award,\u201d\u00a0given\u00a0to the\u00a0student who had the most fun\u00a0(and was the\u00a0most clumsy)\u00a0on\u00a0our field\u00a0work trips\u00a0out at Plum Island.\u00a0Fast forward to today,\u00a0a\u00a0little over\u00a0two years\u00a0later,\u00a0and the biggest project of my fellowship with\u00a0Mass Audubon’s Ecological Restoration team has been,\u00a0fittingly,\u00a0the Salt Marsh Framework.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mass Audubon\u2019s Senior Coastal Ecologist Sara Grady has\u00a0been dreaming about this project since\u00a02024. When I joined the Ecological Restoration team\u00a0in June 2025, she told me about her\u00a0idea of mapping all salt marshes in the state and gathering multiple\u00a0datasets to\u00a0visualize information on the present and future\u00a0of\u00a0salt marshes in\u00a0Massachusetts. She\u00a0then\u00a0hoped\u00a0to use\u00a0that data\u00a0to\u00a0roll out statewide management and restoration recommendations\u00a0to\u00a0local\u00a0governments,\u00a0organizations, and scientists interested in restoration.\u00a0305\u00a0hours\u00a0of work later, from October 2025 to\u00a0April\u00a02026, the Salt Marsh Framework\u00a0is\u00a0now doing just that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the Salt Marsh Framework is a\u00a0GIS-based\u00a0model that scores marshes across three dimensions: Condition\u00a0(looking at\u00a0vegetation health and surrounding land use); Trajectory\u00a0(accounting for\u00a0tidal position, elevation gain,\u00a0marsh-edge\u00a0exposure); and\u00a0Migration\u00a0(assessing potential\u00a0opportunities for\u00a0salt marsh landward movement as sea level rises).\u00a0These\u00a0scores connect directly to restoration and management actions, helping users understand both\u00a0the\u00a0urgency and\u00a0the\u00a0restoration potential. The framework includes extra \u201clenses\u201d like marsh size,\u00a0blue\u00a0carbon\u00a0value, and bird habitat importance so anyone\u2014from academics and students to researchers and consultants to conservationists and other scientists\u2014can tailor decisions to their ecological goals.\u00a0The\u00a0version 1\u00a0Map Viewer\u00a0product<\/a>\u00a0is now available for\u00a0anyone curious about the state of Massachusetts salt marshes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working on this project opened a huge door for me: I was\u00a0recently\u00a0accepted into the University of Rhode Island\u00a0Graduate School of Oceanography to pursue a\u00a0Master\u00a0of Science\u00a0in Marine Geology. Starting in September,\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0be researching salt marsh resilience and migration across Northeast National Parks,\u00a0from Assateague Island in Virginia all the way up to Acadia in Maine.\u00a0Whether it is analyzing data or getting muddy out in the salt marsh,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0excited for another opportunity to get to know these ecosystems a little better\u2014both for my own\u00a0pleasure\u00a0and for a future full of healthy salt marshes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Tiare Sierra Rivera (she\/her) grew up in Puerto Rico. She graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in Earth and Environmental Science, concentrating in GIS and remote sensing, and minoring in marine science. While at BU, she was a student-athlete on the sailing team, earning MVP honors two years in a row.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiare\u2019s environmental journey includes two summer internships in climate resiliency and environmental permitting, as well as a transformative summer experience conducting scientific diving research in Mozambique. During the academic year, she taught an accredited sailing course to fellow college students and served as a teaching assistant for an introductory environmental science class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tiare Sierra Rivera, Ecological Restoration Fellow\u00a0 Not too long ago, I stepped into a salt marsh for the first time.  It was a warm and sunny September day, and I was a senior at Boston University taking a class, \u201cEstuaries and Nearshore Systems,\u201d with Professor Sergio Fagherrazzi\u2014a big name in the salt marsh world for his work on marsh morphodynamics during accelerated sea level rise. As part of the class, we headed out to Plum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-and-conservation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/efp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}