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Introduction
The Wye Island Natural Resource Management Area(NRMA) site is a 6 acre forested wetland restoration in the Chester River Area - Wye River watershed (02-13-05-03) of Queen Anne's County.
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Construction
In late summer/fall of 1994, the Nontidal Wetlands and Waterways Division and the Eastern Shore Resource Conservation & Development Council (RC&D) restored this agricultural area back to wetlands through construction and planting.
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Pre-construction - 1993
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During Construction - Summer 1994
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Post Construction - Fall 1994
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Status
In 2007, MDE conducted intensive site monitoring which included installing IRIS tubes, evaluating the soil, monitoring hydrology multiple times during the spring growing season, monitoring transects, and scoring the site. The three wetland criteria were met: the installed iris tubes all demonstrated that there was sufficient soil reduction to satisfy the wetland hydrology requirement, the soils were hydric, and the vegetation was dominated by hydrophytic species. Tree diversity was low, being dominated by Sweetgum, and a small amount of the site was either too wet or too dry for the desired community. Using the newly developed Mitigation Site Scoring Method, MDE gave this site the relatively high score of 89/100. Overall, this site has developed into a successful wetland and provides valuable wetland functions including a high amount of wildlife habitat, some water quality filtering, and recreational opportunity. This site provides habitat for species listed as highly state rare, including potential habitat for Delmarva Fox Squirrel and reports of nesting Hooded merganser birds.
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Wye Island in 2007
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Wood Frog Eggs
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Leopard Frog
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This site is open to the public. Click on this link for an aerial photo and directions.
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