are salinities of 5 ppt to 10 ppt, then 

 in all probability smooth cordgrass will 

 not remain dominant more than 3 or 4 yr. 

 The marsh will be invaded by other spe- 

 cies. This is not necessarily bad be- 

 cause neither substrate stabilization 

 nor marsh creation is being lost. If 

 the purpose is to establish a marsh and 

 to stabilize the substrate, smooth cord- 

 grass is the best plant to use present- 

 ly. If, on the other hand, a smooth 

 cordgrass marsh is desired, planting in 

 a low salinity area should not be done, 

 or else planting should be restricted to 

 a particular portion of the tidal re- 

 gime. Only in the inundation zone that 

 was covered the longest (11.5 hr) did 

 smooth cordgrass dominate through the 

 fourth growing season. All other zones 

 were invaded by other marsh species. 

 The invaders came in during the second 

 growing season but did not become abun- 

 dant until the third and fourth growing 

 season. In summary, under a low salinity 

 regime, the upper zones are inundated 

 relatively infrequently and are invaded 

 by other species which eventually out- 

 compete and replace smooth cordgrass. 

 Our marsh establishment methodology 

 has been used to stabilize shorelines 

 such as that near a residential develop- 

 ment on the sound side of Bogue Banks, 

 North Carolina. The shoreline had begun 

 to erode because man had interfered with 

 the system. About 10 yr before, a small 

 boat channel was dredged about 100 m 

 (330 ft) offshore and the material was 

 deposited on a narrow fringe of existing 

 marsh. The dredge spoil destroyed the 

 marsh which had served as a buffer and 

 protected the shoreline. There was no 

 erosion problem until the marsh was de- 

 stroyed. Erosion began shortly, and to 

 combat it, a bulkhead was built, but it 

 started to be undermined. The residents 

 had heard about our work and asked if we 

 could help them. We planted a zone of 

 transplants about 12 m (39 ft) wide and 

 seeded several smaller areas in prelimi- 

 nary tests. By the end of the second 

 growing season, we achieved stabiliza- 

 tion with transplants, but the seeding 

 attempts failed. 



I have described the use of trans- 

 plants and seeding to establish a low, 

 regularly flooded, smooth cordgrass salt 

 marsh. I have described how to obtain 

 plants by hand and mechanically and the 

 relative man-hour costs for transplant- 

 ing versus seeding. I have discussed 

 the application of some of our findings. 

 I do not have all the answers and the 

 techniques that we have developed in 

 North Carolina are not applicable every- 

 where. Conditions in particular marshes 

 should be studied and techniques that 

 seem appropriate should be applied. In 

 some areas wave energies are too great 

 to achieve any measurable degree of suc- 

 cess with vegetation, but where it can 

 be used, vegetation is economically and 

 ecologically feasible. In stabilizing 

 estuarine shorelines, vegetation is in 

 certain situations a logical alternative 

 to man-made structures. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Woodhouse, W. W., Jr. 1979. Building 

 marshes along the coasts of the 

 continental United States. U.S. 

 Army Corps Engin., Coastal Engin. 

 Res. Cent., Ft. Bel voir, Virginia. 

 Spec. Rep. 4. 96 pp. 



Woodhouse, W.W., Jr., E. D. Seneca, and 

 S. W. Broome. 1972. Marsh build- 

 ing with dredge spoil in North Car- 

 olina. North Carolina State Univ. 

 at Raleigh. Agric. Exp. Stn. Bull. 

 445. 28 p. 



Woodhouse, W. W., Jr., E. D. Seneca, and 

 S. W. Broome. 1974. Propagation 

 of Spartina alterniflora for sub- 

 strate stabilization and salt marsh 

 development. U.S. Army Corps 

 Engin., Coastal Engin. Res. Cent., 

 Ft. Bel voir, Virginia. Tech. Kemo. 

 46. 155 pp. 



Woodhouse, W. W., Jr., E. D. Seneca, and 

 S. W. Broome. 1976. Propagation 

 and use of Spartina alterniflora 

 for shoreline erosion abatement. 

 U.S. Army Corps Engin., Coastal 

 Engin. Res. Cent., Ft. Bel voir, 

 Virginia. Tech. Rep. 76-2. 72 pp. 



