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Press Releases
The Wetland Bank and Wetland Regeneration - Focus On The Waters
By Daniel Dix July 8, 2002
We have all seen it; it is nothing new. In fact, it’s as old as civilization. The difference is that today it is happening at an unbelievably accelerated level. What is it? The destruction of wetlands for development. We need not look far to see it in process. In any place in the U.S. at any given time, new development is taking place. Many of the most buildable sites have already been taken. The less desirable sites are, with the assistance of modern miracles of bulldozers, dumptrucks and trackhoes, transforming the “useless swamp” into prime commercial real estate.
The story goes something like this. Some mega store, after precise market analysis, seeks to locate in a new community. It knows exactly the best physical location following the most important three rules for business success. However, in the very same place that a commercial nirvana awaits, a wetland now dwells.
One can extrapolate the end result of this systematic destruction. Remember the floods a few years ago in the Fargo-Moorhead area where filling wetlands and tiling the water off into dredged and channeled rivers has been going on for years. Moreover the continual lowering of water tables in so many places does not bode well for us ether.
Ah, a dilemma. Some voices in the community protest Mega’s construction, vices such as small stores soon to be displaced, those who want to preserve the unique atmosphere of the community and, of course, those who see the intrinsic value of a wetland as greater than bigger and better shopping opportunities.
Those voices are quickly stilled by the louder and more powerful voices of “progress” and “economic growth.” However, what about the laws concerning wetland protection? The government in some areas has provided an arrangement called the “wetland bank.” This makes it possible for The Mega Store to fill in and build on the former wetland for a fee. This fee is put aside for the purpose of paying for the installation and/or restoration of a wetland somewhere else.
It should be noted that an exact duplicate of a wetland is impossible. Each is unique, and ecosystem fulfilling and important roles of groundwater recharging and protection, flood control, as well as the nurturing of local flora and fauna. However banking is an arrangement that makes badly needed funds available to assist in protection in areas less desirable for development, funds provided by organizations which benefit from wetland destruction.
The question is just who decides where and when a new or improved wetland is funded and installed. In Cass County, it is the Environmental Services Dept.
I am an environmental landscape designer/installer, keenly interested in the protection of resources and educating people about the many benefits of working with nature rather than against it. I make use of resources available from Environmental Services often, and recommend that property owners who wish to help keep our waters and land clean and healthy, as well as obey land protection statues, do the same.
The value of wetlands
Wetlands are a special environment, home to a huge and unique variety of plants and animals that depend on continually damp soil and, in many cases, standing water to prosper, much of this flora and fauna is not strikingly beautiful to eyes unaccustomed to this setting. To some just the sight of frogs is unsettling, even frightening, although the presence of a vigorous amphibian population is an indicator of a healthy environment for humans as well.
Besides being homes for so many fellow creatures, wetlands act as sponges that absorb heavy snowmelt and rains and release water into either the groundwater or into rivers and streams, or both, in a controlled manner, thereby helping to filter the impurities out of our drinking water and acting as flood control.
A pilot project
In north central Minnesota, we are blessed with an abundance of wetlands that feed the different watersheds that eventually end in the oceans. Besides commercial development, more people are purchasing property here for home sites. They seek to fill in the wetlands present and then seed in nonnative grasses and mow with regularity.
At my project, I want to demonstrate the beautiful, low maintenance and ecologically sound alternative. Many potential clients are reluctant to undertake new and unusual projects until they have seen them installed and functioning somewhere else. Since seeing is believing, once they have viewed the beautiful results of natural landscaping, they can be confident that it has the look and results they want.
I was determined to initiate and complete a wetland renewal regardless of wetland bank funding. Not only would it serve as an example and showcase of what can be accomplished, it would also express my resolve to help make the earth a better place. It is a great concern to me that with the exception of the rainforest environment, wetlands, ecosystems that supply the majority of fresh water on which we all depend, are the most threatened in the world.
The site’s background, as well as can be ascertained, is as follows. The site, near Backus, is very sandy soil and originally grew great stands of white pines, red pines and a mixture of larch and cedar in the presettlement era. The original homestead was build on a logging trail that crossed the Pine River and led into the logging camp that sat south and west of present day Backus. Homesteaders farmed the sandy soil until fertility quickly played out. A Mister Too, before moving here, is understood to have worked on the Panama Canal. He excavated canals to drain areas of this property for farming and cattle grazing. Those drainage ditches still function well after almost a hundred years and can be seen charring an amazingly powerful flow of water after a heavy rain or snowmelt.
An evaluation of the site by Cass County Soil and Water District revealed a perfect restoration site. The soil in the upland area, left poorer by the pioneer farmers, was an ideal potential wildflower meadow. The soil was so unfertile that nonnative weeds could not get a foothold. All that was required was a simple burning and seeding process, which we undertook that spring with results that far surpassed expectations.
But now that wetland renewal process needed to begin. Again the Cass SWCD gave me advice on drainage obstruction to retain the needed water. I checked with the DNR to make sure I violated no regulations and was acting in harmony with known sound landscaping practices and purchased the necessary permit.
Adjoining the wildflower meadow is a “wet meadow,” an area so continually soggy that the plants are called marginal, that is thrive in soil that varies between dry to even submerged for short periods. Exiting from this wet meadow is a culvert that goes beneath a service road and into a seasonally wet area that eventually drains into Bowen Lake, part of the Mississippi River watershed.
To begin, we constructed a treated timber dam in front of the culvert, to restrict the exit of water from the future pond. One can purchase manufactured water level control devices of much higher quality, but we were on a restricted budget.
In early spring of 2000, we teamed a small trackhoe (a backhoe-type machine on steel tracks, designed for smaller digging projects) with a Grand Rapids-manufactured rubber-tracked vehicle weighing only 1.9 pounds per square inch (for minimum damage to the soil and use in both very wet and sandy conditions). With the trackhoe digging while sitting on 16-foot long oak timber (“pads”) so it would not sink into the mud, we removed the excavated soil (“spoilage”) from the site.
At the completion, the average depth was three feet, but a few six foot deep holes exist as well as a shallow edge, in case o fan accidental dip in the pond. The final size is approximately 70X40 feet, with a small island. Our success in creating a friendly place for animals was confirmed when, even before we finished the excavation, a pair of Mallard Ducks made the pond their home.
I did not excavate the area adjacent the pond although it would have allowed a larger pond, because the wet meadow environment is important in itself and is a significant factor in the health of the wetland ecosystem. The question for which we did not have the answer was, “Would the water level remain constant or drop considerably as summer progressed?” After a normal summer, the total water level fluctuated about 16 inches, regaining the full level before freeze up.
Now the physically demanding part of the restoration began, the replanting of edges of the wetland where the flora was damaged or destroyed by the excavation. Although a “seed bank” existed, seeds of various native plants lying dormant in the soil, a major effort was needed to keep the sandy banks from sliding down and refilling the pond. This would cloud the water and create erosion problems where none had existed before.
After an Herculean replanting and reseeding process, we received a torrential rainfall, and many plants and most of the seed disappearing into the water. At this point, it was concluded that a layer of wood ship much would defuse future heavy rains as well as provide a more hospitable growing medium because of its insulating and moisture retention properties.
So we replanted and mulched the early fall of 2000 with mixed results during the growing season of 2001, That season was unusually wet in the spring and then went into a drought until late fall. Hope fully 2002 will be more conductive to successful replanting.
In conclusion, I urge all property owners to take a proactive, “how will my land management affect the generations to come” approach to land stewardship.
For more info. On restoring or construction a wetland, contact your county’s environmental services department. Ask for a copy of the MN board of Water and Soil Resources Wetland Conservation Act Rules, Chapter 8420, as amended.
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