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Ecowrappin'
Development of the St. Clair National Wildlife Area
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
(Last week I began describing the history of the St Clair National Wildlife Area. I had just finished describing how I laid out the construction of the central cross-dyke.)Incidentally, a dragline was on site and commenced construction of the dyke the same morning as the dyke "layout" took place. The instructions to the dragline owner-operator were simple; build a dyke with a minimum top width of 10 feet and 3:1 gradient side slopes to the elevation given by the flagging tape tied on the re-bars. Existing aquatic vegetation and the associated root mat was to be stripped from the entire base of the dyke alignment as well as from the entire surface of the adjacent earth borrow area.
The core of the dyke, to be constructed from mineral soils borrowed from beneath the organic marsh bottom, was to be keyed into the marsh bottom so as to promote an impermeable or water-tight dyke. The organic material stripped from the dyke base and the earth borrow surface were to be placed on the dyke surfaces as erosion protection and a growing medium. The adjacent earth borrow, offset from the dyke by at least 8 meters or 26 feet, resulted in a deep channel that paralleled the entire dyke alignment, functioning as a water conveyance and circulation channel and adding to the desired diversity of the wetland habitat.
The cross-dyke, which took two passes (one on each side) and three months to complete; the installation of a new three-way pumping system; the rebuilding of the dyke that separates the NWA from the Balmoral Club; and the installation of four strategically located water conveyance and management structures, comprised the major components of the project. A number of other wetland enhancement features were incorporated as part of the overall project.
When the water levels of the Great Lakes, including Lake St. Clair, went into drastic decline in 1998, getting water to the St. Clair NWA pump station became a problem. To remedy this dilemma, the old drainage channel was extended out into the new edge of Lake St. Clair. Annual dredging of a short section of this channel to whatever the year by year edge of Lake St. Clair happens to be has allowed sufficient water to get to the Balmoral Club pump and to a new secondary pump that further services the water management requirements of the St. Clair NWA.
The St. Clair NWA is federal land and access by the public is encouraged. Canadian Wildlife Service personnel manage the property and the wetland. Visitor amenities are provided and maintained by the CWS. These include a walk bridge, constructed in 1981 by the CWS to allow visitors access along walking trails on the top of the dyke to a viewing platform in the interior of the marsh. A small parking lot, informational and interpretive signage and brochures, and toilet facilities are provided for the use and convenience of visitors.
The Canadian Wildlife Service and Ducks Unlimited Canada have cooperated under a formal long-term agreement in the enhancement and management of the St. Clair NWA wetland. Included under this agreement are two other federally owned wetland areas near eastern Lake St. Clair. These are the Bear Creek and Pidgeon Marshes Units of the St. Clair NWA. Major management infrastructure upgrades have taken place on the two 50-acre wetlands that comprise the Bear Creek Unit. The Pidgeon Marsh Unit involved enhancing the management capabilities of existing wetland and the restoration of historical wetland on ground that had been drained and farmed for over 20 years.
Perhaps in a future article, I can elaborate on how these wetlands have also taken a prominent place among the natural habitats that are so important to the fish and wildlife resources, and ultimately, the lifestyle and economy of the Lake St. Clair area.
I was born on the Bruce Peninsula on July 20, 1951 and raised on a farm just south of the village of Lionís Head, which is located about halfway up the peninsula on the Georgian Bay shoreline. I graduated from Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology in Barrie in 1973 as a Resources Engineering Technologist. I was hired by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) in April of 1975 as the first DUC employee in Ontario. Throughout almost 29 years I was involved with the implementation of more than 500 wetland projects and project complexes in southwestern and south central Ontario. Some of these habitat projects included important waterfowl and migratory bird habitat along the eastern shoreline of Lake St. Clair. Just three weeks short of completing 29 years with DUC, I accepted an early retirement opportunity effective March 31, 2004.
