2014 HUB3 Eelgrass Restoration Field Season

The 2014 field season was a busy one for the HUB3 Eelgrass Restoration Project. After putting the finishing touches on the Hubline Eelgrass Restoration 2013 Progress Report, we were ready for the annual monitoring at six restoration sites and four reference beds in Salem Sound and Boston Harbor. We also did some additional planting at two of our existing sites in order to increase the total restored area.

Transplanted eelgrass filling in at Middle Ground in Salem Sound.

Monitoring the restoration sites entails counting how many planted squares remain, noting if the planted squares are beginning to coalesce, taking shoot counts from randomly selected squares, measuring the area of each planted plot at the site, and taking plenty of pictures to document the process. Reference bed monitoring is slightly different in that we are not targeting planted plots, rather quadrats to be sampled are selected using a random number generator along a 50m transect across the natural eelgrass meadow. This allows us to collect data that reflects the entire bed. As our restoration sites expand and fill in between planted plots, we will begin the same type of random quadrat monitoring throughout the entire sites. Annual monitoring results look promising so far for most sites and we may be able to adopt the transect method of monitoring for the restoration sites as soon as next year.

Planting eelgrass at Middle Ground using the BD method, 
developed by Chris Pickerell at Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Along with monitoring all of the HUB3 sites, we also added additional plots at Governors Island Flats in Boston Harbor and at Middle Ground in Salem Sound. These additional plantings increased the expected expansion areas of each site from approximately ⅓ acre to over ½ acre for each site. We expect these newly planted plots to do equally as well as the other plots at both sites.

The winter months will be spent pouring over the data we collected throughout the field season, drafting the 2014 annual report, and making plans for 2015. In the meantime, the HublineEelgrass Restoration 2013 Progress Report is available for your reading pleasure.