Meet the winners of the 2022 Wetland Centres of Excellence case study competition

Join us in congratulating our new Youth Wetland Experts! Last month, Zoë, Yuvika and Sydney from the Luther Marsh Wetland Centre of Excellence (WCE) in Mount Forest, Ont. won DUC’s national Wetland Centres of Excellence case study competition, earning the top spot among finalists from five schools across Canada. 

The annual case study competition challenges Wetland Centres of Excellence students to tackle real conservation problems faced by DUC in the field. They have two weeks to complete their research before presenting to a panel of judges. This year DUC biologist and conservation programs specialist Jacob Demers and research scientist James Patterson were on the panel. 

For the competition, the team from the Luther Marsh WCE chose to examine salt marshes and sea-level rise in Atlantic Canada. Their key question was: To adapt to sea-level rise in Atlantic Canada, will you choose to restore salt marshes, improve dikes, or both? 

“I was really excited,” says Yuvika. “I’d learned a bit about sea-level rise in school and this was an opportunity to learn even more.” 

Deciding on a solution for sea-level rise 

The team got to work researching sea-level rise, salt marshes, dikes, and the pros and cons of each. They expected to arrive at an easy answer, but they learned there wasn’t one. 

Both dikes and salt marshes help protect against sea-level rise. Dikes act as a physical wall, whereas salt marshes help by lowering the amplitude and speed of ocean waves and shielding the coastline from erosion. 

“We spent a lot of time debating both sides,” says Sydney. “Zoë kept saying we should focus on salt marsh restoration, but to me dike maintenance made the most sense.” 

They looked at pricing, ecosystem benefits and long-term maintenance, but they still couldn’t decide on a solution. It seemed that a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn’t work after all. 

“The deciding factor was geography,” says Zoë. “Where there were coastal cities being protected by dikes, we kept the dikes in place to protect them from flooding. For other areas, we looked at salt marsh restoration as a solution.”