Protecting Marsh & Shrub Wetlands in Your Community

Why Is It Important to Protect Wetlands in New Hampshire?

Wetlands are among the most biologically diverse, productive, and unique habitats on earth. No part of our landscape provides so many benefits at so little cost to the public. Wetlands play a role in flood control, drinking water quality, groundwater discharge and recharge, pollutant filtration, shoreline stabilization, wildlife habitat, recreation, and education. 

While the importance of wetlands is well established, New Hampshire loses almost 100 acres of wetlands per year. The loss of wetlands is an increasing threat to the health of our environment. Protecting our wetlands is important not only for wildlife, but it is also critical to support beneficial functions provided by these natural ecosystems. Only an estimated 5-10% of New Hampshire lands are wetlands and it’s important to ensure this remaining resource remains healthy and functions for the future.

A wetland at Mulligan Forest in Nottingham, NH. [Photo by Emily Lord]

What are Marsh & Shrub Wetlands?

There are many types of wetlands in the northeast, including marshes, forested swamps, bogs, fens, vernal pools, and tidal wetlands. To be classified as a wetland in New Hampshire, areas must periodically flood or have water at or near the surface, have hydric soils, and support plants adapted to wet soil conditions. 

Marsh and shrub wetlands encompass a variety of wetland types, each with different vegetation, but with one thing in common: the soils in them are wet most of the year. These wetlands fit into three groups, identified by their vegetation – marshes (with plants that grow out of the water, but whose roots are wet), wet meadows (filled with sedges and grasses), and shrub wetlands (with thickets of shrubs and young trees). The cycle of a beaver flowage, from ponded water (marsh) to abandoned/drained area (wet meadow), and re-growth (shrub wetland), can contain all types of marsh and shrub wetlands over time.

How do Marsh & Shrub Wetlands Support Wildlife?

Marshes are important for fish and amphibian breeding and for waterfowl, and they connect people to habitat through hunting, fishing, tourism, and recreation. Shrub wetlands may seem inhospitable to people, but their dense thickets provide reliable cover from predators for many wildlife species. Many wildlife species use marsh and shrub wetlands for some aspect of their life cycle, whether for breeding, feeding, cover or nesting. More than half New Hampshire Species of Greatest Conservation Concern live in wetlands or are dependent on surface waters for survival.

How Does the State Protect Wetlands?

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) is responsible for the protection of NH wetlands. Development and building projects that involve excavation, fill, dredge, removal, and/or construction of structures in or on streambanks, marsh, or swamps in or adjacent to wetlands and water bodies often require state wetlands permits to proceed with the work. As part of the state review process, local conservation commissions have the power to provide comments on an application to the NH Wetlands Bureau to allow for local review of the proposal. Commissions can check to make sure the information supplied on the application is current and correct. They can also provide recommendations to avoid or minimize the impact to the wetlands. To further support wetlands, the NHDES created the New Hampshire Wetlands Program Plan to protect and preserve wetlands, natural resources and water quality, sustain economic vitality, build resiliency to climate change and protect public safety and public health. 

While NH DES is focused on preserving and protecting New Hampshire’s tidal and freshwater wetlands from unregulated alteration, municipalities can also enact regulations to ensure the protection of wetlands in their community. NH State jurisdiction does not generally protect uplands and wetlands buffer areas. Wetlands buffers help to improve water quality by filtering pollution before it enters our water bodies in runoff, and they protect infrastructure by providing expansion of stormwater reducing the risk of flooding. Wetland buffers support wildlife by sustaining a wide range of habitats that allow wildlife to move across the landscape.

A wetland at Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge in Whitefield, NH. [Photo by Rick Van de Poll]

What Can Your Community Do to Benefit Marsh & Shrub Wetlands?

One of the best ways to protect wetlands buffers and uplands is to create a wetlands protection ordinance. 

• Local wetlands ordinances can designate a buffer zone around critical wetlands to ensure these areas remain healthy and available for wildlife. Land conservation projects can include protections for upland buffer zones to protect these areas from future development.
• Consider protecting uplands surrounding wetlands to successfully provide habitat for wildlife. A 300-foot buffer of upland, unimpaired by development (no paved roads, buildings, etc.) protects water resources and habitat for many species. 

Town lands can be an example of good stewardship in their community, encouraging and restoring wildlife habitat, and water and soil resource protection. As landowners, towns should consider protecting and restoring wildlife habitat in and around wetlands and surface waters. There are many ways a municipality can preserve existing habitat, improve degraded wetlands, and create new wetland habitats:

• Regenerate and promote growth of aspen and other hardwoods in small patches or strips along slow streams and rivers to enhance the food supply for beavers. Mallards and black ducks will benefit, as they nest on open ground around water bodies. 
• Maintain habitat structures such as dead standing trees and overhanging vegetation in the water to provide cover for wildlife; keep downed logs as basking sites for turtles. Leave and protect standing dead trees as habitat for heron and osprey nesting, as roosting sites for bats, and as cavity nesting sites for a variety of other birds and mammals. 
• Don’t use heavy machinery within wetland soils to avoid negative impacts on animals or disruption of the wetland’s flooding pattern. 
• Where feasible, maintain open, sunny areas with little vegetation (or sandy areas) adjacent to or near marshes for turtle nesting. Maintain brush and other woody debris in and around wetlands to provide cover for small mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. 
• Maintain beaver dams and flowages and use beaver dam water control devices to maintain a consistent water level (important for protecting property or roads). Locate new roads and development where they are unlikely to be flooded by potential beaver dam sites.

For more information on Marsh & Shrub Wetlands in New Hampshire, including more detailed actions you can take to protect and conserve these important resources, view the Marsh & Shrub Wetlands Habitat Brochure. This brochure is part of the Habitat Stewardship Series, developed with information and strategies from New Hampshire’s Wildlife Action Plan.