At the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), a 1,700-acre tidal salt marsh inland of Monterey, California, kismet recently came calling in the form of a $4.5 million grant from NOAA through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grant made possible the recent construction of an experimental underwater retaining wall, called a “sill,” that’s designed to slow the fast tidal currents that are stripping a portion of the estuary of its mud bottom in a process known as tidal scour.

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