From Marsh to Farm: The Landscape Transformation of Coastal New Jersey
Sebold KR and National Park Service - Cultural Resources. 1992. From Marsh to Farm: The Landscape Transformation of Coastal New Jersey. Washington, D.C.
Land reclamation, whether clearing woodlands for open pasture, irrigating to provide water to normally dry areas, or draining surplus water from wetlands to make sowable fields, has played an important role in the development of the United States from its early settlement to the present. Farmers along the Atlantic Coast, and to a lesser degree along the Gulf of Mexico, practiced extensively the last form of reclamation, the transformation of wetlands, until the end of the nineteenth century. 1 In many cases, the wetlands include both fresh and salt tidal marshes. Up until the middle of the twentieth century, the main purpose for reclaiming the marshes was to increase the agricultural potential of an area (Fig. 1). Today, land reclamation in New Jersey and other coastal states in general is a common means of acquiring land for community development, despite the resultant destruction of the natural environment. Unfortunately, the land cannot revert back to its natural condition on its own. Land reclamation for agricultural purposes, however, is almost extinct today. Far less detrimental, this process requires that marshlands be drained and blocked off from tidal inundation and allows the land to revert back to its natural condition when not maintained.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Sebold, Kimberly; National Park Service - Cultural Resources
- Date of Issue
- 1992
- Units
- HIST , NEJE
- Keywords
- Banking/Diking Procedures, Biology of Salt Marshes, Coastal New Jersey, Cranberries, Cultural Resources, Economics of Land Reclamation, ehistory, History, Landscape Transformation, Meadow Companies, Salt-Hay Farming