U.s. Fish & Wildlife Service

Coastal Wetland Trends in the Narragansett Bay Estuary During the 20th Century U.s. Fish & Wildlife Service

This report presents the results of this multi-agency cooperative project. It summarizes data for the entire estuary and for several pilot study areas where trends were analyzed back to the 1930s. With the aid of the University of Massachusetts (UMass), University of Rhode Island (URI), and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), NBEP obtained an inventory of current coastal wetlands, the 500-foot buffer zone, and potential wetland restoration sites for the estuary. While knowing the current state of these resources is vital to managing the resource, an analysis of trends in these resources would help identify threats and put the present day resources in a historic context.