Rachel Kendall is a person who gets excited about swamps; and about bogs, fens and marshes! She’s a biologist who specializes in soil science, particularly in wetland environments. When we met her, her curiosity and enthusiasm for wild spaces made us feel quite at home. She greeted our summer team at Cherry Hill Beach, Lunenburg County. It was low tide, but we didn’t linger on the breath-taking expanses of sand. Instead we headed inland for the not-so-well-known salt marshes.
We’d been planning the trip for weeks. Originally, we’d intended to visit a bog to celebrate International Bog Day. However due to the catastrophic wild fires that consumed parts of the province in early June, we rerouted to a safer option. Trails, parks and woodlands were closed, but beaches remained open.
After an early start, we drove along the South Shore, past Broad Cove. Entering the local community, we passed signs boldly stating “Say NO to the Cherry Hill RV Park!” – a warning that our destination, a nature reserve, lay under a cloud of contentious development.
Upon arrival, we piled out of the cars to a refreshing brace of sea-spray and bayberry. We passed a cluster of rolling dunes, held together by the distinctive Marram grass, whose matted roots gather and hold the shifting sands. Rachel noted to the group that the beauty of these natural structures is their ability to shift and absorb storm impact. In PEI, a group tried to preserve a dune by building a rigid structure around it. The dune ended up deteriorating further! These special structures are meant to change shape and move, paradoxically, loose sand that flows in the wind and gathers with new generations of grass is what gives them their stability and permanence.
We avoided a roped off area – protected nesting site for endangered Piping Plovers. Rachel informed us the protected area was an initiative started by local environmentalists and surfers. The voice of ordinary people can make a difference.
Further along, we climbed a hill, and gazed over miles of curved beach shore. Behind us lay the marshes. Immediate impressions were rather bleak. The ecosystem appeared barren, almost desert-like (ironic for a wetland!) Apart from a few scraggly White Spruce trees (which we later learned are among the hardiest trees in Nova Scotia, able to withstand strong storms and salty environments), there was a surprising lack of life. Or rather, as Rachel noted, lack of biodiversity. Then again, we were following the appropriately named crest of Hell Bay.
The first wetland we encountered was an inland salt swamp, closed off from the ocean tide. Rachel helped identify the plants growing along the brackish shore: beach pea, Marram grass, and two species of cordgrass. Also silver brocade with its whitish leaves (often found in gardens). This plant, Artemesia stellariana is not native, but does not compete with the other species in the area – it is naturalized.
Further along, a high rock wall separates the beach from the watery shore. The wall is entirely natural, created by wave action in the crescent-shaped bay. Venturing over this wall, we encountered a second wetland. This tidal saltwater swamp stretched far away to open sea and an estuary fed by the Medway River. Among the wetland vegetation, Rachel helped us identify sea lavender, milkwort, pickleweed, and eelgrass. Bladderwrack made the stones slippery. Rachel lamented the invasive Common periwinkle, and its disruptive role in the ecosystem in front of us. There are three native species of periwinkle, smooth, rough, and striped, which occupy different strata of salt marshes, and do not compete with one another for resources. The Common, brought over in the ballast water from international ships, has taken over every tidal zone. Geography influences biology, but here we were in a wild space, a nature preserve, amid undeniable signs of human intervention.
On our journey in, the team came across some bones. We ended up taking about 20 minutes to uncover the skeleton of an unidentified creature. Great mystery as we dug into the wet earth with our hands, uncovering small spinal discs. We were thinking it was a fox, or mammalian predator at first, noting the shorebirds (prey) in the distance. However a flat and elongated pelvic bone raised questions. The discovery of feathers was another clue. Next we uncovered long straight bones, tibia, fibula and femur. When we put them together, they were two feet long—that’s when we realized it was a large bird – perhaps a heron?
This is when Rachel told us her theory. There’s more carbon capture in the soil of wetlands than in the soil of forests. The presence of water in the soil makes it a difficult environment for oxygen-breathing microbes and for decomposers. The bodies of the dead are preserved longer. Carbon stays in the ground.
We took soil samples and photos. Walking back I gathered a few isolated bones to make into jewelry. Souvenir of our journey. We stopped for lunch and asked Rachel what’s next for her. Her plan is to go back to school to get her PhD. She had a wetland site in mind for an extended study, but unfortunately, the area was destroyed by the fires in Shelburne County. We commiserated. On the news driving home, we heard the whole country was fighting fires—the most ever for this time of year. We all knew people who had been evacuated from their homes. The situation was far from settled. Helicopters dangling water buckets and relief planes circled the highway, commuting from lake to fire. We tried to get off, but the exits were closed. Our new reality. I said to Rachel perhaps she could study wilderness areas recovering from the damage of the fire. That’s what she’ll be doing at the research centre where she works. Does she need any help from citizen scientists? Yes, she said, she’d like that. That’s how we parted.
In the following days, the team met to discuss the characteristics of the area, and look at some aerial photographs. We looked at the different water patterns, and discovered where the fresh and saltwater led to a brackish mix. We also were able to discuss the main differences between the salt marshes we encountered with Rachel, to the wetland at the Centre. We noted the Centre had a layer of upper grassland, but not lower. It is also a far more protected environment from the elements at the Centre.
The barrier that the layers of shore, dunes, wetlands, and tree cover at Cherry Hill beach protected the community and residents from destruction during storms. This is part of the natural protection that preserved environments offer as an ecosystem service. The implementation of an RV park in Cherry Hill would destroy this, and risk endangerment of many species, as well as the destruction of human space. The effects of humans upon different environments is so strong we noticed, through the influence upon space, habitat destruction, introduction of naturalized and invasive species. It is inevitable the considerations of human impact on environment.