Grand Pre Marsh EarthCache

Grand Pre Marsh

Grand-Pré is a Canadian rural community in Kings County, Nova Scotia. Its French name translates to "Great/Large Meadow" and the community lies on a peninsula jutting into the Minas Basin surrounded by extensive dyked farm fields (reclaimed salt marsh), framed by the Gaspereau and Cornwallis Rivers.  Grand Pre marsh is predominantly agricultural lands developed from rich salt marshes.

I spent many a day as a kid growing up helping to hay on the Grand Pre Marsh.  It was a hot dry spot with little wind it always seemed. The best part was riding back home on top of a load of hay.  How did we ever survive not in our car seats?

Salt Marshes

The marsh is made up of silts and clays that were carried in from the Bay of Fundy by spring and moon tides. This build up occurred during a period in which land subsidence coincided with rising sea levels, which increased tidal ranges from the Bay of Fundy and allowed the marshes to extend inland. This sedimentation process is still occurring, providing a foundation for the formation of future salt marshes on the outside of the existing dykes. 

The position of salt marshes on the landscape and their productivity makes them important not only as a part of the natural world but also to humans. These ecosystems have large stores of carbon in peat that is periodically, or continuously inundated with water. This provides plenty of sulfate to fuel the mineralization of organic matter needed to support production.  Extensive salt marshes occurred at the mouths of tidal rivers and in other low-lying coastal areas. The Grand Pre marsh falls between the mouths of Cornwallis and Gaspereau rivers.

Functions and Value of a Salt Marsh

Salt marshes also protect shorelines from erosion by buffering wave action and trapping sediments. They reduce flooding by slowing and absorbing rainwater and protect water quality by filtering runoff, and by metabolizing excess nutrients. Marshes act as natural filters, removing sediment and toxins from the water.

Salt marshes are important transitional habitat between the ocean and the land; they are estuaries where fresh and saltwater mix. Tides carry in nutrients that stimulate plant growth in the marsh and carry out organic material that feeds fish and other coastal organisms.

Over time, salt marshes accumulate organic material, forming into a dense layer called peat. Peat is made of decomposing plant matter that is often several feet thick. Peat is waterlogged, root-filled, and very spongy and is the physical structure or the marsh.

The marsh is dominated by dense stands of salt-tolerant plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh in trapping and binding sediments. Salt marshes play a large role in the aquatic food web and the delivery of nutrients to coastal waters. They also support terrestrial animals and provide coastal protection.

This map below highlights how Acadians adapted the salt marshland at Grand Pré.

To log this Earthcache visit the viewing location. Please answer the following questions and send in a timely manner to my geocaching profile or email. Answers not received will result in deleted logs.

1. Why are there no trees on the marsh? 

2. If the dykes were gone what would the marsh look like?

3. Why is the marsh so fertile and productive?

4. What is the elevation of the marsh?

5. Post a picture of the area with your log.

[REQUIRED] In accordance with the updated guidelines from Geocaching Headquarters published in June 2019, photos are now an acceptable logging requirement and WILL BE REQUIRED TO LOG THIS CACHE. Please provide a photo of yourself or a personal item in the picture to prove you visited the site.