EASTON, MARYLAND — Along Dorchester County’s Blackwater marshes and Somerset’s Tangier Sound edge, land managers now have a sharper map of which wetlands still buffer communities from storm surge and which need protection first.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources released Sept. 14, 2026, a new Marsh Resilience Portfolio on the Maryland Coastal Atlas. The portfolio scores marsh health and the benefits a marsh provides for habitats and nearby communities, including how much it can cut wave height during a storm surge. DNR says the tool will help target restoration and protection where marshes can keep working as flood buffers as sea level rises and shorelines erode.

“Marshes are an important ecosystem in their own right, providing water quality and habitat benefits, but they’re also critical buffer zones for coastal communities,” DNR Watershed and Climate Services Director Natalie Snider said in the release. “This new Marsh Resilience Portfolio offers insights on how to best direct marsh restoration efforts in the state.”

Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay tidal wetlands cover more than 282,000 acres. The portfolio assesses marshes by overall health, proximity to people, proximity to other habitats, and wave attenuation. It also recommends where to prioritize protection based on marsh elevation and vegetation. Dorchester and Somerset counties hold the largest share of highly protective and healthy marshes in the portfolio — and those same counties face some of the most intense erosion and sea-level-rise pressure. Ponding, migration barriers, and development add further stress on those wetland systems.

The Marsh Resilience Portfolio, funded through Maryland’s Coastal Zone Management Program, replaces the Marsh Protection Potential Index released in 2016. The new dataset pulls in more quantitative spatial data from the U.S. Geological Survey and wave attenuation results from a NOAA-funded Effects of Sea Level Rise project.

DNR has already used marsh-health data from these sources to help pick living-shoreline sites under the Roots for Resilience initiative aimed at protecting high-quality wetlands in places such as Dorchester and Somerset. The department says it will use the portfolio to guide future funding for marsh restoration and protection.

How to open the map on Coastal Atlas: open Maryland Coastal Atlas, click Map layers, select MD Marsh Resilience Portfolio, then click a marsh for health and habitat scores.

Color layers then display over marsh areas. Data are also available to download on Maryland iMap. Land managers seeking training can contact Dylan Taillie of DNR Watershed and Coastal Services.