The salt marshes on the Parrsboro Shore and Apple River are part of a larger coastal area that developed when ice sheets, formed during the last ice age, retreated. The area is called the glaciated coast (Sebold 1992, Chapter 2) and extends from the St. Lawrence River south to the northern edge of New Jersey. The salt marshes on the glaciated coast were formed over the last six thousand years (Amos, 1978, P 965-981,Atlantic Geoscience Society 2001 and Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Enviroment. 2008).

Another term for the glaciated coast is defined by Dr. Matthew G. Hatvany, a Université Laval Historical Geography Professor researching the human use of tidal wetlands. Professor Hatvany's definition is “The Northeast Region in the Colonial Epoch (1600-1850)”. This presentation will use the term “Northeast Region”.

References

Amos, C. L. 1978. The postglacial evolution of the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia-a sedimentological interpretation. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 48 (3).

Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Enviroment. 2008. Salt Marshes in the Gulf of Maine: Human Impacts, Habitat Restoration, and long-term Change Analysis.