A Chesapeake Bay island, once used as a presidential retreat but diminished to fewer than 5 acres by the 1980s, has been replenished with dredged material, creating wetlands that serve as a wildlife sanctuary.
Poplar Island, located one mile northwest of Tilghman Island in Talbot County, began to vanish, like many bay islands, due to rising sea levels and erosion.
The restoration project, a joint effort of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Maryland Port Administration, received additional funding in President Barack Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2016. The appropriations would be used to expand the island by 575 acres over the previous goal of 1,100 acres, an expansion approved by the president and Congress last year.
The initial project is nearly complete and will not be able to hold any more dredged material. The expansion will allow the island to continue to provide beneficial habitat construction, according to the Maryland Port Administration.
The budget’s $26.5 million allocation for the Poplar Island project represents a 75 percent increase over the previous year’s proposal. The federal government funds three quarters of the project and the state is responsible for the remainder.
The island has been rebuilt with material dredged from the Maryland Bay Channels and the approach channels to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, a total of about 3.2 million cubic yards per year, said Justin Callahan, the Poplar Island project manager for the Corps of Engineers.
“Poplar is groundbreaking because it takes dredged material and is using it beneficially,” said David Blazer, director of the Harbor Development Department of the Maryland Port Administration.
This type of project hasn’t been done to this scale before and it is generating interest worldwide, he added.
Delegations from other nations, including Germany and Brazil, have toured the island.
Poplar’s 3.2 million cubic yards of dredged material is about 60 percent of the approximately 5.2 million cubic yards dredged in Maryland shipping channels every year.
The bay has a natural tendency to refill its deep spots through a variety of factors, including natural erosion and tidal waters, Blazer said.
Charles Hawkins says
It might be of interest to know that the Poplar Islands referred to in the article as having once served as a presidential retreat was a private club founded by FDR’s cabinet. That club, The Jefferson Islands Club, was a retreat for members of the Democratic Party serving in government (both the Congress and the various Administrations. In the late 1940’s the club house burned and the club negotiated a swap of the Poplar Islands for St. Catherine’s Island in the lower Potomac River (below the 301 Bridge (Nice) and north of St. Clements Island). The club has been visited by Presidents Roosevelt (FDR), Truman (a poker card table still is in the clubhouse), Kennedy, Johnson (the story goes that Kennedy persuaded Johnson to be his running mate while they were both at the club), a number of Maryland and Virginia governors as well as leaders from national associations and corporations. It gave up its exclusivity for Democratic Party members a number of years ago. The club remains in existence today where it provides hunting, fishing and a relaxed atmosphere for its members and their guests.
Louis L Howeth, Sr. says
I noted with interest the article on Poplar Island. My Great Grandfather Levi Howeth (Howarth) purchased most of Poplar Island around the Mid 1800 hundreds. I would need to check court house records in Easton for more accurate inf. My Father James M. Howeth (Howarth, along with my Mother Katie Howeth an Uncle, Aunt, and Grandmother were the last owners of the Island to operate this family business. Farm land livestock, store, rental houses approx 16 in number, saw mill and rooming house They also owned a community house that served as School and church.
Mother, Dad and family sold the Island in the early 1900. I was told that the family owned approx. 1,000 acres. There were many factors that contributed to the land erosion, however my father pointed out to me as a young teenager that the wake of the more modern larger and more powerful ships traveling in the channel out in the bay did much to add to the erosion problem I recall that these waves were more typical in size to what you might find at the ocean sea side. Rumor only on my part, but some years ago I was told that one of the Gov. agencies experimented with the Island to see what would happen to this land if left to nature.I understand that coaches Island or Valiants Island as it was called by the locals was not involved in this project or any restoration that is being completed at this time.
My father would be pleased with the restoration, because of his love for the Island. I too share this love.