South Marsh Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

View of the South Marsh

From this vantage point, you can peer out over the serene South Marsh and glimpse some of the homes that make up the island community of Broad Channel. The Rockaway Peninsula, just beyond this view, shelters Jamaica Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Over centuries, saltwater marshes, like the South Marsh in front of you, were built up from sediment accumulation. From the late-1800s until the early 1950s, the saltmarsh islands in Jamaica Bay were covered, in part, with sand and mud dredged from the bay. Where you stand right now, the land on which the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is located, was once part of a group of small islands that included a separate Broad Channel Island, until they were filled with dredge soil to create today's larger Ruler's Bar Hassock. As a result of sea level rise and the filling in of islands of Jamaica Bay, the salt marshes are rapidly disappearing. While recent conservation efforts and continued research have led to improved conditions, some scientists believe that the salt marshes of Jamaica Bay may soon vanish.