Citizen Involvement in Wetland Restoration: The Canoga Marsh

Example

Keith G. TidballCanoga Creek Farm & Conservancy

&Cornell University Civic Ecology Lab

April 2010Cayuga 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.

Background

Starting Conditions

Starting Conditions

Starting ConditionsWe 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

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 ProgramUSFWS Partners for Wildlife Program

Starting Conditions

DEC Wildlife Biologists surveyed the area and made recommendations

We had the property surveyed to outline easement areaA Plan finalized

Starting Conditions

Breaking GroundDucks 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 GroundWarm season grass establishment provided by Pheasants forever and Cayuga County SWCD (no-till seed drilling)

Switchgrass 50 lbsBig Bluestem 150 lbsIndiangrass 50 lbsEastern Gamagrass 46 lbsVirginia Wildrye 53 lbsLittle 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

Restoration

Restoration

Restoration

Restoration

Restoration

Restoration

Results Reporting

Results Reporting

Results Reporting

Before

...After

State WMA Tidball FarmPrivate Land

Property Boundary

Thank you!