Habitat Restoration & Protection Database

The restoration site is a degraded and degrading tidal wetland, located north and west of Ferry Road, and South of I-95 in Old Saybrook. Aerial photo interpretation shows that the invasive grass, Phragmites australis, is gradually but progressively displacing all of the original vegetation. This spread is exacerbated by several factors. The first is that the site was at one time a brackish marsh that was hydrologically connected to the Connecticut River by a tidal creek that flowed north. When I-95 was constructed in the early 1950s, the tidal creek was filled and the hydrologic connection to the Connecticut River was broken. The loss of tidal exchange resulted in degradation of the wetland habitat and loss of native brackish marsh vegetation. The only tidal connection remaining was an undersized stone culvert under Ferry Road which connected this marsh to the Ferry Creek wetlands. These hydromodifications have adversely affected the natural hydrology of the system and contributed to the spread of Phragmites.