Citizen involvement in wetland restoration

Citizen Involvement in Wetland Restoration: The Canoga Marsh Example
Keith G. Tidball
Canoga Creek Farm & Conservancy
&
Cornell University Civic Ecology Lab
April 2010
Cayuga Lake Watershed Network Spring Seminar
Kuneytown Sportsmen’s Club
Fayette, NY

Starting conditions
"Greater familiarity with marshes on the part of more people could give man a truer and more wholesome view of himself in relation to Nature. In marshes, Life's undercurrents and unknowns and evolutionary changes are exemplified with a high degree of independence from human dominance as long as the marshes remain in marshy condition. Marshes comprise their own form of wilderness. They have their own life-rich genuineness and reflect forces that are much older, much more permanent, and much mightier than man.”
Paul L. Errington1
1. OF MEN AND MARSHES, Paul L. Errington. The Iowa State University Press, Ames; 1957; 150 p.

Starting Conditions
Background

Starting Conditions

Starting Conditions
We set some goals
restore lost wetland functions
potholes and level ditches create openings in wetland
habitat value
plant diversity
submerged aquatic veg
amphibians and macro-invertebrates
waterfowl brood rearing
visibility of wildlife for public enjoyment and education
demonstration area for wetland enhancement

Starting Conditions
Assessment by DEC wildlife biologists
Class I wetland, 134.4 acre, degraded, dense mono-cultural cattail marsh
Steep vertical drop at common lake levels restricts wildlife
Purple loosestrife present throughout, not dominant.
Upland fringe includes burr reed, silky dogwood, green ash saplings, & willows
Distinct areas of mature green ash and cottonwood
Substrates are hydric organic soils
characterized in the Seneca County Soil Survey as: shallow, inundated areas around lakes and ponded areas, bottom-land and alluvial deposits, covered by water most of the year.
Adjacent, upland area in row crop production (soybeans in 2003, corn in 2004 and 2005)
Two well-defined erosion gullies are present, flowing eastward to the wetland boundary.
The drop off from upland to marsh is steep (1 to 1 slope) and ranges from 4 to 8 feet.

Starting Conditions
USDA NRCS Wetland Reserve Program
USFWS Partners for Wildlife Program

Starting Conditions
DEC Wildlife Biologists surveyed the area and made recommendations
We had the property surveyed
to outline easement area
A Plan finalized

Breaking Ground
Ducks Unlimited, through the US Fish and Wildlife Service, contributed 25% of the total cost of restoration of the Tidball/Canoga Marsh project, more than $10,000 for the ducks and their habitat!
Photo courtesy of Elon Weinstein

Breaking Ground
Warm season grass establishment provided by Pheasants forever and Cayuga County SWCD (no-till seed drilling)
Switchgrass 50 lbs
Big Bluestem 150 lbs
Indiangrass 50 lbs
Eastern Gamagrass 46 lbs
Virginia Wildrye 53 lbs
Little Bluestem 50 lbs

"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." — Aldo Leopold (Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold)

Restoration

Results Reporting

Before

...After
State WMA
Property
Boundary
Tidball Farm
Private Land

Thank you!

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Citizen involvement in wetland restoration

by Keith Tidball on Apr 18, 2010

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Citizen involvement in wetland restoration — Presentation Transcript