On Chesapeake Bay, an Island Saved from Sinking, Part 2

VOICE ONE: Kevin Brennan leads the Poplar Island project. He says the project will cost six hundred sixty-seven million dollars. The federal government has paid most of the money, sharing the cost with the state. Completion is expected by about twenty thirty-four. Much work has already been done. Flat-bottom boats have carried eighteen million cubic yards of dredged material to the island. When a boat arrives, the material is cleaned and dried. Machinery pumps the dry material onto the island. Then it is shaped to build up the land. About forty hectares have been completed. The Chesapeake Bay sometimes flows over the wetlands, which cover half the land. Plantings in the wetlands help hold down the soil against the forces of erosion, like wind and water. VOICE TWO: In June, volunteers placed seventy-six thousand spartina plants in a wetlands area. Spartinas are a kind of saltmarsh grass. They traditionally are a home for wild birds and prevent erosion. The volunteers placed the plants about five centimeters into the soil to prevent rising and falling water levels from pulling them out. Volunteers also built barriers to keep hungry geese from eating the spartina. Students from the Marriotts Ridge High School in Maryland volunteered for the project. Besides planting, the students also released terrapins on the island. The terrapins joined thousands of other turtles there. The National Aquarium in Baltimore helped organize the release with other groups. VOICE ONE: Later in June, prisoners also worked on the island. They are part of a state program called Maryland Correctional Enterprises. The program is meant to help prisoners develop work skills for the time after they serve their sentences. VOICE TWO: At one time, poplar trees must have grown on Poplar Island. But there are no poplars there now. Instead, northern pines and hardwood trees will rise on the higher half of the land, which is called Upland. Even dead trees have found their way to the island. Trees thrown away after the winter holidays are part of the recycling process. Kevin Brennan of the Poplar Island Project says ducks like to build their homes on the dead trees. Winter brings workers and machinery to the island. But the noise does not seem to frighten the birds. Source: Voice of America