smead
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by smead on Jul 10, 2010 6:37:24 GMT -5
Posted here in the hope that someone may have information on these issues.
1. Planting misc highway right of ways and ramp areas with trees and natural plants...have not heard much about this lately...or seen a whole lot done. Seems like some affluent areas do this on a local level, but it's more along the lines of "prettification". I imagine that cost is a factor, but so is the expense involved in mowing large expnases of grass.
2. Olentagy River Wetlands Research Park...I recently stumbled across this and have read a bit about it. How does the man made portion compare to that portion left to develope on it's own. Is it possible to go and look at the wetland? Which portion is considered to be the "billabong", that area to the north and east of the kidney shaped marshes along the river?
3. Lakeshore Drive between Trabue Road and W. 5th Avenue along the Scioto...seems like homes are being built right on the river. Private property rights come into it as well, but isn't this sort of thing discouraged? I can't imagine that those people can get affordable private flood insurance can they? Seems like they would have to get federal flood insurance subsidized by the taxpayer...making the free use of private property notion fall kind of flat on it's face in this case...especially since this is new construction.
4. A reading list for watershed and wetlands ecology for the layman. Seems like there's plenty of material for elementary school kids, then a big jump to university level material...I'm at the Edward Abbey/Barry Lopez level...I enjoy Aldo Leopold, but when he gets hardcore, I can get easillylost. I'm sure that there are many others who get daunted when the material becomes too technical...a few good book recommendations would be appeciated.
Thank You!
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Post by Eugene on Jul 13, 2010 13:08:57 GMT -5
1. Sorry, this really isn’t my area. I do like seeing wetland sedges, bullrushes, etc. encroaching on highway ditches. Unfortunately, highway ditches have also allowed the invasion of some non-native wetland plants (like narrowleaf cattail that has been steadily displacing our native broadleaf cattail). I will say that I far too often see purple loosestrife deliberately planted as a roadside ornamental, including on ODOT managed roadways. Purple loosestrife is not native, is very invasive in wetlands, and the allegedly sterile cultivar has been repeatedly demonstrated to not be. 2. The Olentangy River Wetland Research Park (ORWRP) does have its own web site: swamp.osu.edu/. The physical site does offer tours and an open lecture series ("Moonlight on the Marsh") as opportunities for the general public to visit. I was actually coauthor on a little wetland soil paper published in the 1997 ORWRP annual report, but I haven’t done much on the site since. To collect soil-water data, we installed a series of monitoring wells between the basins. If you’re nerdy enough to be curious (i.e., really nerdy): Fineran, S., E.C. Braig, B. Elifritz, M. Ohman, and W.J. Mitsch. 1998. Hydric soil indicators and redox potential for the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park experimental wetlands. Pages 119-125 in W.J. Mitsch and V. Bouchard (eds.), Olentangy River Research Park at The Ohio State University: annual report 1997. The Ohio State University, Columbus. Every basin that pools water on the site is pretty thoroughly what one would call a "created" wetland. "Billabong" is simply an Australian word for an oxbow or isolated backwater. The billabong is the pool immediately west of the river, and the later maps do name that pool "oxbow." The only part I’m aware that has been left to its own devices without rather active restoration is what is labeled "bottomland hardwood forest" on maps, and given the nature of wet forest communities, it is quite different from that of open-water marshes. Early on (1994), one of the kidney-shaped marsh basins was planted (Wetland 1) while the other was left unplanted (Wetland 2) for the vegetation assemblage to develop via natural colonization. However, both those physical basins were themselves created by human construction. By 1996, it was reported that differences in wetland vegetation cover had "converged." There are substantial lists of sampled plants and wildlife as well as water quality data available at the web site. 3. I haven’t been into that area for a while. What you describe sounds like a case of "too bad" regarding the development itself and "let's hope so" regarding discouraging that behavior and the cost to insure. 4. I’m not certain where to point you regarding watershed reading. I’m a bit more familiar with wetland literature. I might point you towards the OCVN Program: ocvn.osu.edu/. Completing their training with some local chapter will place their training manual into your hands. That manual has chapters on watersheds and aquatic life. I am a coauthor of the latter, and that chapter includes a brief section on wetland ecology. Full citations for those chapters: Baird, A. & D. Oleskiewicz. 2008. Exploring Ohio’s Watersheds. Pages 55-62 in Ohio State University-Extension (ed.), Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist Training Manual. Ohio State University-Extension, Columbus.
Braig, E.C. IV, M. Williams, J. Bonnell, J. Conroy, W.E. Lynch Jr., M. Fries, & C. Ahnmark. 2008. Aquatic Life. Pages 63-90 in Ohio State University-Extension (ed.), Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist Training Manual. Ohio State University-Extension, Columbus. In addition, check out the following books if you can lay hands to them: Environment Canada. 2002. Where land meets water: understanding wetlands of the Great Lakes. Environment Canada, Toronto.
Hoagman, W.J. 1998. Great Lakes wetlands: a field guide. University of Michigan Board of Trustees/Michigan Sea Grant Publications, Ann Arbor.
Killam, G.. 2005. The Clean Water Act: an owner’s manual, 2nd ed. River Network, Portland.
Sanders, R.E., ed. 2000. A guide to Ohio streams. Ohio Chapter of the American Fisheries Society/Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, Columbus. (Also available for download at the ODNR site.) |
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smead
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by smead on Jul 14, 2010 1:13:46 GMT -5
1. I'll have to research more; IIRC, there was a plan of sorts...though it seemed to be more orientated toward trees. Strange that ODOT is planting loosestrife. 2. Thanks for the site map .pdf!!...was looking at satellite maps. I now understand what they did and where. I'll look over the site. 3. I saw this again via satellite imaging then did a little on the ground recon. It's very recent as there's more completed than shown on sat images. So close to the river than you might lose a house guest if he/she goes out the back door at night on some properties. If I didn't care at all about stream conservation, I'd still say the people were nuts for building/buying a house there. If I were an insurance agent, I'd turn down their business and suggest Lloyd's of London. They may someday learn why the nearby railroad right-of-way is where it is and why it's strongly elevated...as well as recieve an introduction to the concept of a floodplain. 4. Thanks for the list...I'll download the ODNR material tonight and search out the rest. BTW...may I recommend Bing Maps, unlike Google Maps, you can print out satellite images. Bing also offers a "birdseye" view. This is the master link...just type in Columbus, Ohio on the search line. www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?q=&mkt=en-US&FORM=BYFDThanks Again!! |
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smead
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by smead on Jul 14, 2010 3:02:31 GMT -5
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Post by Eugene on Jul 14, 2010 8:32:35 GMT -5
The watershed site is operated by OSU Extension and features a list of watershed groups and coordinator contacts. Unfortunately, given the semi-unstable nature of those soft-money-funded organizations, the coordinator list is in a near-constant state of outdatedness. It's a good site, but be mindful of its nature.
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Post by kokofisher on Jul 14, 2010 20:16:58 GMT -5
The houses aolng Lakes shore are still about 30' above the river along a pretty steep bank (trust me, I have had to rappel down the bank to treat a tree at the river). It would have to be a really huge flood event to affect them.
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smead
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by smead on Jul 14, 2010 23:24:23 GMT -5
Speaking of wetlands...from the Dispatch: www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/07/14/restoring-the-landscape.html?sid=101They also aquired 33 other acres...at the cost of over half a million $$$, indicating the expenses involved with land preservation. I'm sort of dubious about how the money is spent here though, regarding what is spent on the wetland as opposed to the building. Would this really be a man-made wetland, or a matter of undoing past drainage and allowing the area to revert?? |
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smead
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by smead on Jul 14, 2010 23:36:43 GMT -5
The houses aolng Lakes shore are still about 30' above the river along a pretty steep bank (trust me, I have had to rappel down the bank to treat a tree at the river). It would have to be a really huge flood event to affect them. The north end certainly, it doesn't look like that much on the south end. I wonder how that area did in Jan 2005, that was a 50 year flood wasn't it? |
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Post by Eugene on Jul 15, 2010 11:26:48 GMT -5
Would this really be a man-made wetland, or a matter of undoing past drainage and allowing the area to revert?? That question is often tricky to pin down...and how long after a historic wetland site has been drained and dry does it cease to be a wetland? Would it still be a wetland "restoration" after 150 years of being a corn field, or by then do you have to brand it a "created" wetland? I can understand a little skepticism regarding the separation in the funding levels of different aspects of this project. However, consider that a wetland restoration ideally simply reintroduces water to the landscape and lets it function as it should; i.e., ideally, unless it is necessary to remove substantial infrastructure, it shouldn't be very costly. I actually see value in constructing a nature center if it enhances the public's knowledge and valuation of such habitat. |
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smead
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by smead on Jul 16, 2010 16:27:23 GMT -5
The danger is too many nature centers and too little nature.
I expect funds to be even more limited as the next state budget is hammered out regarding State resouces for preservation...Cities and Counties aren't much better off.
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Post by Eugene on Aug 9, 2010 9:30:50 GMT -5
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Post by Kyle Kochheiser on Aug 9, 2010 11:09:16 GMT -5
Nice article. Thanks for posting that Eugene. Can we get some of those wetlands up in the NW portion of the state?
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Post by Eugene on Aug 10, 2010 11:56:17 GMT -5
The NW portion of the state is one place in Ohio where lots of wetland remains, but they are pretty intensely managed up there.
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