NRCS partners with Save The Bay and the University of Rhode Island to restore Eelgrass Habitats

With funding through the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, NRCS, Save The Bay, and the University of Rhode Island-Graduate School of Oceanography (URI GSO) began a week-long effort of transplanting and seeding thousands of eelgrass (Zostera marina) plants in Narragansett Bay. One acre of eelgrass beds were restored during this effort. The project is using recent advances in underwater seeding and whole plant transplanting techniques. Eelgrass is an under water marine flowering plant or "seagrass" and provides important ecological services to bays and coasts worldwide. Eelgrass beds are a primary source of food and shelter for many types of marine life, including economically important finfish and shellfish species, such as the bay scallop. The restoration conducted at Fogland Point and Poplar Point builds on the work completed earlier this year and will incorporate recent advances in eelgrass seeding techniques. The eelgrass beds that have been restored are now full of life with creatures such as seahorses, flounders, tautog, crabs and many types of bait fish

As part of this federal, state and local partnership, the team will be using URI GSO’s innovative creation, an eelgrass seeding machine, to sow hundreds of thousands of eelgrass seeds under water. The seeding machine acts as an underwater planting device where seeds are injected in a nutritive gelatinous matrix, pumped into the tines of the planting sled and injected just below the sediment surface. The seeding machine uses the same technology the food industry employs to inject jelly into donuts. Additionally, whole eelgrass plants, collected from a designated donor site, are also being planted within the restoration area using the TERF ^tm (Transplanting Eelgrass Remotely with Frames) methodology. This approach allows eelgrass shoots to be tied directly to weighted lobster pot modified frames. Eelgrass shoots are gingerly 7tied to TERF ^tm frames with dissolvable crepe paper and are then deployed by divers. Weeks later, the TERF ^tm frames are removed once shoots have rooted into the sediment.

Eelgrass habitat is vitally important to the Rhode Island economy due to its role in supporting fish, shellfish, and other wildlife. The tragic loss of eelgrass over the past century demands that we work together to restore this important species. NRCS is proud to support this unique partnership of volunteers, marine scientists and local citizens.

Best estimates indicate that the majority of historic eelgrass beds in Narragansett Bay are gone today. Only 100 acres of eelgrass remain. Hundreds of acres of Narragansett Bay could once again support eelgrass habitat following full-scale transplanting activities and water quality restoration.