New England salt marshes were highly valued by early colonists for hay and aesthetics, but these values diminished with the introduction of European grasses and industrial development. Many marshes were eventually filled to accommodate development and eradicate mosquitoes. Filling was driven by the dominant cultural worldview of the industrial era that humans were exempt from ecological processes. A new ecological worldview emerged during the 1960s and provided the basis for environmentalism. The economic value of salt marshes was restored during the early 1960s when scientific theory linked them with fishery productivity. Additional ecological and socioeconomic values that resulted from scientific research throughout the 1960s led to legislation to protect salt marshes. Regulation of tidal lands for the common good had a strong historical and legal precedent that fit well with the new worldview. This led to a rapid decline in salt marsh filling after 1970. The movement to restore salt marshes, which began in the late 1980s, has been driven by the ecological worldview, increasing recognition of salt marsh value, and a weakening of social trends such as population growth and the industrial development that drove marsh eradication. The restoration movement is likely to survive periodic set-backs, because the ecological worldview continues to deepen in the American, social consciousness and the economic value of salt marshes continues to increase as a result of ecological and economic research.