The aerial/satelite photos I've reviewed make it clear that the marsh is being lost to erosion at an alarming rate. The type of vegetation is important because fresh/intermediate/brackish marsh vegetation resist erosion much better than the vegetation found in higher salinity salt marsh.
Each type of vegetation has a range of salinity that it can tolerate, and (generally speaking) the less salt plants tolerate, the better the land they grow on is going to resist erosion. So it may look good to the eye, but it has been shown with high confidence that salt marsh erodes more quickly during regular tide and storm events, and it is also much more susceptible to catastrophic large scale disappearance during tropical storms.
If the "marsh lovers" were blowing smoke on this, I'd be the first to call them out and cite all the sources that contradict them. But the "marsh lovers" are giving it to us straight. I've reviewed the data and the sources in some detail, and their inferences that we need to preserve that marsh and that keeping the salinity low back there is essential are spot on.
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