Tantramar Marshes
Communities currently on or bordering the marshes include, in New Brunswick: Aulac and Sackville, and on the Nova Scotia side: Amherst, and Fort Lawrence.
The landscape of the Tantramar Marshes has provided subject matter for the poets Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, Douglas Lochhead, Marilyn Lerch and Elizabeth Bishop, painter Alex Colville, and photographer Thaddeus Holownia.
[1] Seven management goals were outlined: wetland diversity, open fields, upland habitat, fish passage, invasive species, human activity, and exterior forces.
Unauthorized activities such as camping - including fires, - off road vehicle use, and an overall increase in tourism have the potential to harm and destroy the vulnerable habitat.
[1] Other human-based concerns include nearby wind power farms disrupting migratory bird populations and fish pathways for diadromous species no longer functioning as intended.
[5] Much of the area is below sea level, but instances of flooding are prevented by the soft ground and plant life which withhold water and filter out toxins.
[5] The word “Tantramar” comes from the French “tintamarre” which means “din”, a reference to the cacophony of noise made by the local waterfowl.
[10] The American bittern and Sora are elusive waterfowl which are highly sensitive to changes in their environment, so they have been classified as indicator species.
[2] Bird species include the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica), Canada warbler (Cardellina canadensis), olive-sided flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), red knot (Calidris canutus), least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna), and short-eared owl (Asio flammeus).
[3][17]With its ability to thrive in exposed environments with low-lying landscapes, Spartina dominates the plant life in the Tantramar marshes.
[18] The samphire (Salicornia europaea) and seablite (Suaeda maritima) grow in bare mud that is located in the middle area that sits just above the high tides of the marshland.
These species include water lilies, Bladderwort (Utricularia), Buckbean (Menyanthes), mare’s tail (Hippuris vulgaris), and Pondweed (Potamogeton natans, P.
[20] Storms bring in unusual levels of precipitation and strong winds which can damage the fragile ecosystems of the marsh and the dykes in New Brunswick which help prevent flooding from the Gulf of Maine.
[1][23] Water from flooding via dyke failure or from increased and more intense storms due to climate change will also lead to accelerated Erosion,[24][25] draining the wetland of many important nutrients.
They founded a number of scattered settlements on higher ground, and created dry farmland using polderisation, by building the dykes and sluices which converted the salt marshes to fields and pastures.
[31] After 2010 fears emerged that rising sea levels and deterioration of 18th-century hand-built dykes and sluices threatened to flood the Tantramar Marshes and make Nova Scotia into an island separate from the North American mainland.
[35] The declaration of the Tantramar Marshes as a protected area resulted in many restrictions being imposed with how the land and water surrounding it can be accessed and used.
[2] Visitors are given access to the protected area for things like leisure activities, which include swimming, having group events and meals, using the trails for hikes, boating, skiing/snowboarding and skating.
