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Ecowrappin'
Holding the water just a little longer
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
I work for Ducks Unlimited as a Habitat Specialist in Lambton, Chathem-Kent, and Essex Counties. The most important part of my job is to increase the amount of wetlands that we have here. The old focus of DUC was that more wetlands will result in more waterfowl. While this is largely true, we are not just about ducks anymore!An equal focus to waterfowl is water quality. A proper, functioning wetlands filters sediments and nutrients from the water before reaching the streams or lakes. You have heard this before and when you do, you think of the large coastal wetlands like those at Lake St Clair with hundreds of acres of marsh. I thought this time I would discuss a different type of wetland and how these contribute to water quality as well.
Ephemeral wetlands are those that only last a short while. They may be around for a few days or a few months, but except in an especially wet year, will dry up during the summer. They occur wherever water ponds up during rain events.
Think about it. When the water ponds up it stops moving. This allows the suspended soil particles as well as the nutrients and other contaminants to settle down to the pond bottom. The water is cleaner.
Across Southern Ontario we have intensive drainage systems in both cities and in farmed areas. Rainfall is quickly collected and a torrent of water goes flashing down the creeks. This flushes everything in its path. Even if these creeks empty out to a wetland area, they cannot perform the water filtering that they might because all the water arrives at once.
We need to find ways to hold onto water longer. There are numerous places where water is quickly drained, simply because it can be. Why don't we think about some of the places that are drained that maybe do not need to be?
A woodlot is the best place to start. There are a lot of woodlots where the effort is made to get access for surface water to drain out. Why? It will not hurt the woodlot to hold water a little longer. If the woodlot has surface drainage and dries up in early May, a simple earth plug may hold water there until July.
There are many old oxbows and meanders along creeks and rivers. These are the places where the channel used to flow, but has now moved over to another spot. These are low lying areas that are now separated from the stream. They are inundated with floodwater during peak flows and then drain out after the water level subsides. Once again, a simple earth plug or small structure can hold water in these areas for much longer periods of time.
Urban development is now required to include storm water management as a component of the plan. These settlement ponds just hold onto rainwater to let the crud settle out and then release the water slowly after the peak flows have passed. About a year ago, I saw a presentation about municipal storm water and all the efforts to promote infiltration into the soil and to find ways to not have it all flow to the creeks at once.
Are you aware that most municipalities have a by-law in place that requires eave trough downspouts to be disconnected from subsurface drainage? This is part of a provincial policy that states this action should be taken for at least the summer months in order to promote infiltration and hold onto the water longer. I doubt that it is strictly enforced anywhere.
Some of the irrigation ponds that farmers are constructing will also do the same thing. They will capture water during peak flow events and then release it back onto the fields when needed. I think this should fit nicely with the DUC vision and would like to apply the "Pond Incentive" program we have to an irrigation pond designed with consideration for wildlife too.
If you have standing water on your winter wheat, then you have a reason to be digging furrows to let the water off. Have you ever seen anybody digging furrows in the spring in order to let the water off a field that will not be planted for at least another six weeks?
There are many ways to hold onto water and by doing so have a positive affect on the water quality of our lakes and streams. Each little spot may not make a measurable difference but together these will have a cumulative benefit.
Darrell Randell works for Ducks Unlimited Canada as a Conservation Programs Specialist in South West Ontario. Before that he was a Lambton County Pork Producer for 25 years. He served 2 terms on Sombra Township Council, 1994-2000, and is currently a councillor in St Clair Township. He is a past president of the Lambton County Federation of Agriculture. He was a founding member of the Rural Lambton Stewardship Network and served as chairman of that group from 1995-2003. He and Nancy have 3 grown children, each of whom they are extremely proud.
