Something unexpected has happened in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Between the tourist steamboat rentals, the National Aquarium and the World Trade Center, a labyrinth of lush floating wetlands and walkways has sprung up.
Harbor Wetland is a 10,000-square-foot floating wetland modeled after a tidal marsh in the Chesapeake Bay, and is exactly the type of habitat that once graced the Inner Harbor before development.
The wetland was created along a maze-like floating pier between Piers 3 and 4 of the National Aquarium. But unlike most other areas of the aquarium, admission to the wetland exhibit is free. It serves two purposes: First, the man-made wetland serves as a habitat to attract and support aquatic life in a body of water that, until recently, no one would have dared to dip a toe in. Second, it is a floating classroom where visitors can learn about the wetland and the species it attracts. Check it out for yourself (click on the photos to enlarge):
Visitors to the Inner Harbor over the past seven years may have noticed a small grassy area on a floating platform. This smaller wetland became the basis for the public attraction that opened this week.
Although the wetland is designed to return the inner harbor to a more natural state, it is surprisingly high-tech and complex. The habitat is made of recycled plastic mats coated with UV protection for durability. The mats are planted with tidal wetland shrubs and grasses whose roots reach into the water (cleaning the water and creating hiding places for aquatic species).
The mats are attached to a system of air-regulated, adjustable pontoons that can change the buoyancy of the wetland as it grows and becomes heavier. Water is circulated through the wetland’s shallow channel by thousands of bubbles created using ceramic air stones with compressed air. The bubbles also release oxygen into the surrounding water, increasing dissolved oxygen levels and keeping the water in the wetland moving.
The dream of a wetland in the Inner Harbor took more than a decade and $14 million to realize. The 32,000 native shrubs and marsh grasses were made possible by local CFG Bank and investments from The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, The Bunting Family Philanthropies, Constellation and others.
“Harbor Wetland is the culmination of 12 years of research, innovation and determination,” said
Aquarium President and CEO John Racanelli. “We are very pleased to welcome the residents of Baltimore and
Visitors onto the water to get a close-up look at the living habitat that is being created here in the interior of the country
Harbor.”
While floating wetlands exist in other cities, Baltimore’s wetland is the first of its kind, as buoyancy and air circulation systems have never been used before. The aquarium team has filed three scientific patents, which are currently pending.
Jack Cover, the aquarium’s curator, whose years of experience in tidal wetlands helped inform the design, says there is strong evidence that harbor water quality is improving and that this trend will continue in the wetland.
“We hear so much negative about the water quality in the Inner Harbor, but there is life in this water and there always has been,” Cover said. “I hope people see the life that this wetland attracts, from tiny microorganisms to fish, crabs, waterfowl and even small mammals like muskrats and otters — all of which we already see here.”
Along with the public, sixth-graders from Baltimore City Public School also have the opportunity to visit Harbor Wetland as part of the “What Lives in the Harbor” curriculum.
