Saving The Sinking Salt Marshes: Comparing Restoration Case Studies to Louisiana’s Breaux Act

Maggie Allio

This website is part of a semester long research project for Environmental Studies 406, a Senior Seminar class taught by Professor Candie Wilderman during the Spring Semester 2005 at Dickinson College. After reading Bayou Farewell by Mike Tidwell and Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner, each student conducted a literature review on a topic of their choice pertaining to the serious environmental problems in Louisiana and/or the Chesapeake Bay.

Based on my experience with monitoring freshwater systems, I wanted to investigate coastal wetlands to see if some of the challenges in restoring freshwater wetlands existed in salt marshes. After conducting an assessment of the Mully Grub Restoration Project Wetland my senior year at ALLARM, I was also interested in how restoration projects are evaluated. Originally, I wanted to investigate the ecological indicators used in monitoring, but after reading about the unique organizational structure of the Breaux Act, I decided to concentrate on how adaptive management affects the outcomes of different restoration projects.

Maggie Allio - alliom@dickinson.edu

My first summer at Aquascape wetland and Environmental Services, 2002

Qualifications

• Double major in Environmental Science and Policy Major
• Three summers of experience with freshwater wetland restoration and mitigation projects
• Four years working at ALLARM
• Studied Abroad Junior year at the University of East Anglia, School of Environmental Sciences