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At a recent community meeting hosted by the Cousins River Marsh Collaborative, 37 community members from Freeport and Yarmouth, Maine learned about the Collaborative and large-scale research being conducted in the 128-acre Cousins River Marsh in Southern Maine.
In addition to the Service, the Cousins River Marsh Collaborative has members from the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Freeport Conservation Trust, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Royal River Conservation Trust, Sea Meadow, and Northeast Climate Adaptation Center.
The members share conservation priorities in the Cousins River watershed and are committed to collaborating on land protection, restoring tidal marsh hydrology, improving fish and wildlife habitat, and partnering with landowners around the Cousins River and Pratts Brook tidal marshes.
The Gulf of Maine Coastal Program presented about upcoming hydrology restoration work and ongoing sedimentology research by University of Massachusetts.
Landowner engagement is critical for the research to occur since the marsh is owned by a diversity of public and private landowners. This event was the beginning of engaging landowners to participate in land protection and restoration work such enrolling property in Natural Resource Conservation Service easement programs, donating to local land trusts, and volunteering with the collaborative.
