Ecology of regularly flooded salt marshes of New England: a community profile

Salt marshes, especially the muddy, wet, intertidal portions of them that are described in this report, have often been considered wastelands--areas to be filled to make useful land or to be dredged to make useful water. From the scientific point of view, the past few decades of research on salt marshes have provided a much better basis for evaluating marshes than before. From the esthetic point of view, we probably value little that has not been appreciated for the last several hundered years. But esthetics usally do not play a large part in decisions regarding the preservation of salt marshes.