WESTERLY TO USE DEM'S MARSH WALKER TO IMPROVE MOSQUITO CONTROL AT WATCH HILL SITE

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News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade St., Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462

For Release:	October 5, 2001
Contact:	Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402 Stephanie Powell 222-4700 ext. 4418

WESTERLY TO USE DEM'S MARSH WALKER TO IMPROVE
MOSQUITO CONTROL AT WATCH HILL SITE

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management's "marsh walker" will be used for several days beginning Tuesday, October 9, to improve mosquito control at a Watch Hill salt marsh.

Westerly public works staff will use the strange-looking machine to clear out a 750-foot clogged channel that serves a salt marsh north of Watch Hill Road and Pasadena Avenue. The channel has been taken over by Phragmites, an invasive tall grass, restricting tidal water flow to the marsh and making the marsh a prime breeding ground for mosquitoes. Clearing the channel will improve tidal exchange, reducing mosquito production and improving wildlife habitat.

The "marsh walker" is an odd and unique piece of construction equipment, designed like a "Bobcat" with out-sized, extra-wide, rubber tracks. It looks as though the tracks would crush the marsh, while, in fact, the opposite is true. The size of its tracks spreads the load to two pounds per square inch of pressure, or less than one person's body weight.

Officially called a low ground pressure vehicle, it was acquired for use in oil spill response and restoration in marsh areas. With the marsh walker, DEM can get in to cut grass down so that no free oil remains under tidal influence or carry booms or absorbent material through a marsh without further damaging it.

While waiting for use in oil spill response, the marsh walker is being used as a water management tool for mosquito control and for salt marsh restoration, and municipal employees are being trained to use it. It has already been used successfully at Allin's Cove in West Barrington and at Duck Cove in North Kingstown for mosquito habitat control, as well as at Weekapaug and Winnapaug Marshes in Westerly, where it made its debut in 1999.

The upcoming Westerly operation will be supervised by Alan Gettman, Ph.D., DEM's mosquito control coordinator and John Fusaro, Jr., Westerly's public works superintendent. The marsh walker will also be used this fall and winter to improve water flow at two other Watch Hill salt marshes.

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