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The Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, will temporarily close Tuesday as conservationists work to restore 5 acres of tidal salt marshes that provide habitat for diamondback terrapins.

Scotch Bonnet Island along Cape May County’s coastline provides habitat for creatures like turtles and coastal birds, and soaks up flood waters.

But sea level rise, which in New Jersey is occurring at twice the global average, is drowning out marshes. More of these coastal wetlands are being lost, and converting into open water and mud flats.

Wetland loss is impacting species that rely on them for nesting, while leaving some communities more vulnerable to flooding.

“Our marshes are really important to help us with coastal resilience. Aside from the huge biodiversity that’s out there, the reliance of 75% of our commercial food fish comes from the marsh,” said Lenore Tedesco, executive director of the Wetlands Institute. “So, losing marsh acreages is impacting all of those things, including our ability to be protected by these marshes during storms.”

Wetlands have historically been impacted by development, particularly between the 1950s and 70s, before state regulations were implemented to protect these natural resources. New Jersey lost 39% of its wetlands through the 1970s until the New Jersey Wetlands Act of 1970 and the New Jersey Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act of 1987 regulated dredge and fill activities.

Today, about 20% of the state’s remaining salt marshes are highly vulnerable to “drowning” or transitioning into tidal mudflats due to sea level rise, according to Rutgers University.

“Our marshes are more frequently inundated, and that means that a lot of the marsh vegetation has a hard time hanging on,” said Tyler Kinney, a coastal biologist with the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Bureau of Lands Management, who has partnered with the Wetlands Institute.

“In a typical environment, the marsh surface accretes at the same rate, and it gains elevation at the rate that sea level rise would elevate, and vice versa, it’ll lose elevation as sea level rises, so it remains a balanced system where the rate of sea rise we’re seeing today means the system is falling out of balance and our marshes are drowning.”

The marsh complex at Scotch Bonnet Island is no different. The marsh’s trail previously flooded about twice a year. Today, it floods more than 60 times each year, making it more difficult for the marshes to absorb flood waters. The damage also impacts species like diamondback terrapin turtles, which rely on the marshes for nesting. Many of these turtles are killed on roadways as they search for new habitat.

“That high ground is a really important place for diamondback terrapin nesting. We have a lot of coastal birds using that upland area as well,” Tedesco said. “But with sea level rise, we’re losing, those areas are now starting to flood as well, so that’s no longer as suitable a habitat as it had been in the past.”

The Salt Marsh Trail Revitalization project involves widening and elevating the trail by 2 to 3 feet using earthen berms, and increasing vegetation. The goal is to restore the marshes, sequester carbon, buffer against flooding and enhance habitat for diamondback terrapins and coastal bird species.

The Wetlands Institute is working on the project in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Fish and Wildlife and the borough of Avalon.

The project is being funded with a more than $3 million grant from New Jersey’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Natural Climate Solutions program. It’s one of several projects across the state aimed at restoring and protecting wetlands.

The Wetlands Institute will close Sept. 8 and temporarily relocate to the New Jersey Coastal Conservation Center as it undergoes the restoration work. The Wetlands Institute will also be replaced with a new building to help enhance its research, conservation and environmental education.

Kinney said the project will not only help vulnerable species that rely on wetlands, but will also benefit New Jersey residents.

“A lot of our fisheries, the same fisheries that provide food to the people of New Jersey operate in these waters, and the fisheries are directly connected to these natural systems. A lot of the brookeries for these fish occur in these salt marshes,” he said.