A Disappearing Island Restored Poplar Island Is Rising Back Out Of The By the 1990s, the island was nearly gone, containing a mere 10 acres of land. in the left image, taken by the landsat 5 satellite on june 28, 1997, poplar island had been reduced to a tiny green dot surrounded by clouds of silt laden water. in 1998, the u.s. army corp of engineers began to restore poplar island. The right image, taken on july 5, 2011, shows that much of the island has been re vegetated. poplar island now has an area of 1,140 acres and may continue to expand by another 500 acres before the restoration is completed in 2027. upon completion, poplar island will be half wetlands and half uplands covered by forest.
A Disappearing Island Restored But the descendants of those buried at poplar fought for a different outcome. more than 60 years ago, an aging family member led a mission to rescue the remaining five headstones from a watery grave. now, the history making project to rebuild poplar island has given them the opportunity to bring those stones back to where they had once stood. Poplar island is rising back out of the chesapeake with a little help. a disappearing island restored a catalog of nasa images and animations of our home planet. The best record we have of how big poplar island was comes from around 1847 when a survey suggested that the land area of poplar was around 1,100 acres. and just for reference: a football field is around 1.3 acres. so you add up a thousand of those and that’s how big poplar island was. by the late 1800s there were maybe 100 residents. Riding high off the success of poplar island’s long term restoration using dredged channel sediment, the army corps of engineers has received a $43.1 million contract to restore two more disappearing bay islands. the army corp’s mid chesapeake bay island ecosystem restoration project aims to restore critical wildlife habitats.
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