Salt Water Marshes

A Place Between the Tides

Harry Thurston was very well spoken and is a beautiful writer; no wonder so many people turned up to hear him read tonight. I have to say, however, that I was not expecting to learn much about salt water marshes at the beginning of the lecture while Thurston read of his childhood memories of growing up on a marsh. By the end of his speech, however, I better understood the importance of these marshes, and not just for their beauty, but for the impact they had on his academic life.
Thurston painted a vivid picture of the marsh he grew up around in Yarmouth, NS (the largest intact salt water marsh in Atlantic Canada). Picture this: sixty thousand birds take flight and move as one; the reflection of a “silver moon” off the marsh water while black ducks swam round; two otters playing on an icy bank; the sound of the willet that made him feel like he was home; how rare it was to see a human amongst this serenity and wildlife
All of the plant and animal life that exists in such habitats is threatened, like the rest of us, by rising sea levels. The marsh itself acts as a “buffer to a battering sea”; it collects runoff, and filters pollution. Thurston portrayed the marsh as “so little but so vital”, explaining that it contributes so much to the world.
There was discussion of the mud flat in Windsor, NS. A man from the Windsor area spoke of a marsh turning to a mud flat after a causeway was built. Now, 15 or 20 years later, a salt marsh has returned. Nature has re-grown itself! On the other hand, Thurston also spoke of an artificial basin created years ago to hull boats between the Bay of Fundy and the Northumberland Straight. Although boats kept getting bigger, the basin was never actually used. Now this basin is a playground to seals and other creatures. How ironic; humans destroy a piece of nature that adapts and finds a way to survive, and we generate something that we are not able to make adapt and it becomes a part of nature.