Video: Restoration Work Transforms Cape Cod’s Herring River Estuary

As work progresses on construction and monitoring efforts of the Herring River Restoration Project in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, residents will begin to see environmental changes. Salt water will gradually be introduced to the ecosystem, transforming freshwater marsh into saltwater marsh. A dike built across the Herring River in 1909 restricted normal tidal flow to the estuary for more than a century. It significantly reduced the number of migratory fish entering the river and severely degraded the habitat for estuarine species like oysters.

NOAA's Office of Habitat Conservationawarded the Town of Wellfleet$14.7 million to support the restoration of the estuary. Funding comes through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

In the video below, NOAA Marine Habitat Restoration Specialist Danielle Perry and other project partners explain how the ecosystem will recreate itself.

Additional project partners include: