Reimagine Middle Branch & Middle Branch Resiliency Initiative

A bold vision begins to reverse a legacy of degradation and environmental injustice by restoring habitat, flood resilience, and human connection to 11 miles of urban waterfront.

The Middle Branch of the Patapsco River is adjacent to Baltimore’s famous Inner Harbor, but its history of heavy industry, aging infrastructure, and fragmented neighborhoods, have severed it from the city. To bring greater resilience, vibrancy, and connectivity to its communities and waterfront, the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership (SBGP) launched a large scale effort to reimagine the 11-mile waterway through three Equity Frameworks: Protect and Connect the Shoreline, Transform Barriers into Connections, and Strengthen Communities with Parks and Programs.

Biohabitats contributed to the transformative “Reimagine Middle Branch” master plan, which promotes community health, climate resilience, and biodiversity by improving access and connectivity to 598 acres of parkland and restoring Chesapeake Bay habitats. Biohabitats characterized more than 550 acres of terrestrial and inter-tidal habitats through a desktop analysis and provided the design team with a more detailed picture of existing ecological conditions by assessing specific sites on foot and by boat. Biohabitats prepared conceptual designs for expanding and restoring intertidal marsh habitat to improve flood resilience, water quality, and biodiversity along the most critical stretches of shoreline. The designs and associated cost estimates were then incorporated into grant applications. The high return on investment, as indicated by cost benefit analyses, led to funding for design, permitting, and construction of more than 40 acres of tidal marsh.

The Middle Branch Resiliency Initiative represents the implementation of the ecological elements envisioned in Reimagine Middle Branch. Biohabitats led design of these nature-based solutions, which included tidal marshes and creeks, habitat structures for fish and birds, and restoration of the critical area buffer. In an aligned effort, Biohabitats also helped SBGP and GreenVest procure over $50 Million in grant funding to date. Construction of the first eight acres of tidal marsh restoration is projected to be completed in the Spring of 2025, and subsequent sites will follow.

With public access and marsh ecology woven back into the water’s edge, and with improved access associated with the effort on the horizon, the Middle Branch is poised to become a model for rectifying a legacy of environmental injustice by building a waterfront park that enhances quality of life and provides greater resiliency to problems of the climate crisis.

TAGS

• Analysis+Planning
• Assessment+Monitoring
• Design
• Climate Adaptation + Resistance
• Ecological Restoration