On a sunny day in April, Youth Climate Corps fellows visited Belle Isle Marsh Reservation.
According to the Friends of Belle Isle Marsh website, a salt marsh is
“a coastal area that mostly comprised of native plants and grasses. (…) It serves as natural buffers to climate change impacts by absorbing floodwaters and waves during coastal storms, which are becoming increasingly more intense and frequent due to sea level rise and erratic weather patterns.”
Belle Isle Marsh is the only remaining natural salt marsh within the City of Boston.
Sean Riley, the Forest and Park Supervisor for the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) Belle Isle Marsh Reservation (BIR) and Rumney Marsh Reservation, took the Youth Climate Corps members on a tour of Belle Isle Marsh.
The fellows learned about the conservation and restoration effort at Belle Isle Marsh.
For example, because the area has become windier due to climate change, folks at Belle Isle Marsh are experimenting with planting young trees that are more resilient in the wind.
There are also efforts to track the birds that are visiting or inhabiting Belle Isle Marsh. The fellows especially loved the Osprey Cam – a camera set up near the nest of an Osprey pair that returns to Belle Isle Marsh every year. You can check out Osprey Cam below too!
We had another fun day at Youth Climate Corps learning about the amazing work on ecological resiliency happening in the East Boston area!
The fellows are excited to apply what they learned at Belle Isle Marsh to their bioscience studies to support coastal resiliency in East Boston with Hughes Lab at Northeastern University and Emerald Tutu.
