Deciding whether or not the restoration of salt marshes is necessary is no difficult task. There are many different factors that must be taken into account when trying to come to a conclusion. While restoring marshes is a nice idea in theory, there are many components that could cause detrimental affects to the area. First of all, human intervention goes against the natural process of life. Leaving a recolonization of non-native plants to grow is allowing nature to follow its path. This will allow a new culture of plants to thrive and leaves room for various species to develop and expand. Overtime, nature will be able to heal itself without the need for humans. While it may be believed that because humans have caused this destruction, they should be the ones to clean it up, I don’t think this is necessarily true. Just as nature was present before humans, it will be present afterwards as well. It is not our job to continue to pursue the region but instead our job to allow time and avoid interaction.

Attempting a restoration of a marsh with native plants calls for many different factors to be taken under consideration. Restoring tidal conditions, balancing salt levels and introducing new species are only a few of the many dilemmas that must be addressed. While some species may have gone extinct due to salt marsh destruction, other species have thrived with these new changes. If native animals are reintroduced, it may be unlikely that the two will be able to coexist. Who is to decide which animals matter more?  Also if restoration does take place, human intervention cannot be for a short time period. Instead, it would take years to properly track and insure that the restoration is going to as plan. Often times, these long term projects lose interest and funding to continue on. If the project is only half completed, the effects could be detrimental and leave the environment in a worse state than before.

I think that instead of human intervention after the fact, we should instead focus on preventative actions. Although these preventative actions may not help in cases like the destruction that Hurricane Sandy caused, it can help in other ways. Most destruction is due to human interaction rather than from natural causes and there are numerous ways to keep our impact minimal.