Fowler Beach may be the best place in Delaware to see the role of climate change and sea level rise.

The former beachfront, part of the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, has all but washed away. A parking lot is gone, along with a galvanized steel guardrail, a bird observation platform, a former freshwater marsh once filled with ducks each fall and winter, and saucer-sized pink and white blossoms of the marshmallow plants that used to appear each summer.

The trees are ghostly black branches – killed by saltwater sucked up by roots. And the road – at least the last mile of it – is crumbling and impassable. In two spots, water has cut deep canyons through the asphalt.

This landscape is about to change again.

Work is expected to start this spring on a $38 million federal project to save 4,000 acres of habitat at Prime Hook Refuge, which hugs Delaware Bay. The refuge is a have for migratory birds and 51 species of fish. The residential communities of Broadkill, Prime Hook and Slaughter beaches separate a large piece of the refuge from the bay.

•Planting 500,000 plugs of salt-tolerant grass to begin the process of vegetating the marsh. That will help hold the marsh in place and over time, build up the bottom as plants grow, die, decompose and re-vegetate each year.

•Bringing the water level down by cutting some 30 miles of narrow channels that closely follow the historic drainage patterns in the marsh and reconnect the water flow to Slaughter Canal, which flows to Delaware Bay.

•Allow the natural flow of water from one side of the marsh to the other by removing the last mile of road. An elevated boardwalk also is planned. The area is popular with anglers, crabbers and bird watchers.

•Restoring the beach, filling in breaches and planting beach grass to hold the dunes in place.

The area has been prone to flooding for years and was hit hard by Hurricane Irene in 2011, Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and a series of nor'easters. Storm tides ripped through protective dunes and brought saltwater into Prime Hook marshes.

The goal is to make the area resilient against higher tides and more storms, while restoring natural areas lost to erosion.

"Our hope is to keep pace with sea level rise," said Al Rizzo, who supervises wildlife refuges in Delaware for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The project has been controversial. Some duck hunters lobbied for a return to the old man-made freshwater marsh system – a plan federal officials say is not sustainable. Nearby, Prime Hook residents accused federal officials of being a bad neighbor for not filling the breaches as they happened.

The Delaware Audubon Society also has questioned the wisdom of spending millions of dollars on a marsh restoration. It contends the money could be better spent buying out the property owners in the nearby community. But the federal authorization doesn't allow for land purchases or buyouts.

Matt Sarver, conservation committee chairman of the Delmarva Ornithological Society, said the project has his support. His organization and partner The Conservation Fund helped add land north of Fowler Beach Road into the refuge.

"I think it's going to provide a lot of habitat," Sarver said.

The work also has the support of Sam Burke, a nearby landowner whose family, in the 1980s, granted the federal government an easement so that water could drain across his property to create a freshwater habitat for migratory duck.

In exchange, the refuge pledged to not allow water levels to reach a certain limit. That limit was exceeded after Hurricane Sandy cut six inlets through the dune to allow bay water to flood the marsh.

"I can't hold the local Prime Hook officials responsible for the breaches," Burke said. "In the long run, they've got a pretty good project" that will restore the marsh and rebuild protective dunes.

Work is expected to continue into next year. Federal officials have no intention of holding the beach where it is right now. Instead, the beach will be allowed to migrate west and if new breaches form, it will be left to mend on its own.

"What we're trying to do is put back what the natural landscape is able to support," Rizzo said.

Contact Molly Murray at 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj. Contact Jeff Montgomery at 463-3344 or mailto: jmontgomery@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at JMontgomery_TNJ.