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Wetlands are a vital part of the landscape and ecology of the United States, providing food and shelter for species ranging from the beautiful wood duck to the tiny fairy shrimp. These areas provide critical habitat for fish and wildlife, protect communities from flooding, and recharge groundwater supplies—yet they continue to be destroyed at an alarming rate. A detailed analysis of wetlands management, Wetland Drainage, Restoration, and Repair is a comprehensive guide to the past, present, and future of wetland recovery in the United States. The book includes a historical overview of wetland destruction and repair over the past two hundred years and also serves as a unique resource for anyone, from novice to engineer, interested in the process of wetland restoration. Author Thomas R. Biebighauser draws from his own vast experience in building and repairing more than 950 wetlands across North America. Included are numerous photographs and case studies that highlight successes of past projects. Detailed, step-by-step instructions guide the reader through the planning and implementation of each restoration action. Biebighauser also provides a number of effective strategies for initiating and improving funding for wetlands programs. Wetland Drainage, Restoration, and Repair is essential reading for all who care about and for these important ecosystems.
Aldo Leopold, father of the "land ethic," once said, "The time has come for science to busy itself with the earth itself. The first step is to reconstruct a sample of what we had to begin with." The concept he expressedâ€"restorationâ€"is defined in this comprehensive new volume that examines the prospects for repairing the damage society has done to the nation's aquatic resources: lakes, rivers and streams, and wetlands. Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems outlines a national strategy for aquatic restoration, with practical recommendations, and features case studies of aquatic restoration activities around the country. The committee examines: Key concepts and techniques used in restoration. Common factors in successful restoration efforts. Threats to the health of the nation's aquatic ecosystems. Approaches to evaluation before, during, and after a restoration project. The emerging specialties of restoration and landscape ecology.
Wetland Habitatsis a practical manual that puts developments in the field of wetland restoration and conservation of diverse animal species into plain English, placing much of the more recent work in this field into a single, coherent and user-friendly framework. As with Planting Wetlands and Dams, the text explains the various approaches to and aspects of each problem, so that readers will be able to make informed decisions about managing wetlands on their own properties. Although the examples are drawn from a wide range of wetland animals, including some which aren't necessarily found in wetlands on private properties, the primary emphasis will be on species and aspects of management that are likely to be of most use to landholders with wetlands to be restored, or species in need of conservation. The plants and planting aspects of created wetlands and dams are dealt with in detail in the second edition of Planting Wetlands and Dams. Key features: * Reversing the effects of drainage, grazing, weirs, deteriorating water quality and associated algal problems, and allowing for global warming and sea level rises * Setting realistic targets for wetland restoration and longer-term goals for management * Understanding natural change in wetlands - seasonal, ecological and chemical
I examined hydrological and plant community changes associated with the implementation of a restoration management plan in two riparian meadows located within an agricultural landscape of the central Willamette Valley, Oregon. I established exclosure fencing (a form of passive restoration) in one agricultural field and established fencing and plugged a drainage ditch (active restoration) in a separate agricultural field. Permanent transects 15 m in length were established within two plant communities associated with hydrological regimes within these restored agricultural fields. Plant communities were classified as wetland meadow (inundated for more than 4 weeks/year) and mesic meadow (saturated within the upper 30 cm but not inundated) for at least 4 weeks/year. Four transects were randomly established within the wet meadow community and 6 transects were randomly situated within the mesic meadow community. Two shallow subsurface piezometers were installed to a depth of 1 m at 5 m and 10 m along each of these 15 m transects. Additionally, two shallow sub-surface piezometers were established at the outer perimeter of the agriculturally excluded fields. Shallow sub-surface and surface water table levels were measured at each piezometer after wetlands were inundated and continued until water table dropped below the piezometers (Dec. - June) for one pre-treatment and two post treatment years. The actively restored wet and mesic meadows demonstrated increased water table elevation and a decrease in water table fluctuation during both post treatment years. Increases in water table elevation were greatest in areas closest to active restoration but were significant up to 102 m. from restoration. Results indicate that filling drainage ditches induce hydrologic effects at great distances across floodplain soils. Plant community composition (species response) was quantified in both restored sites as well as the adjacent agriculturally managed (untreated) sites one year before treatment and two post-treatment years. I sampled two plant community types: wet meadow and mesic meadow. I calculated species richness and the relative abundance of wetland indicator species, nuisance weeds, and native plants. Nuisance weeds increased and native plant abundance decreased in agriculturally managed mesic meadows. Wetland plant species abundance tended to increase in agricultural sites with light grazing, and decreased in areas that were plowed and re-seeded. Native plants increased and nuisance weeds decreased in the actively restored mesic meadow. The passively restored mesic meadow exhibited no change in native plant abundance and decreases in all other categories. In the actively restored wetland there were increases in plant species richness and nuisance weed abundance with a decrease in native plant abundance. Agriculturally excluded wetlands dominated by Reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) exhibited no changes for the entire study period. Results suggest that for the first few years following agricultural exclusion, nuisance weed species do not increase, but active restoration may result in increases (due to disturbance). Additionally, results indicate restored agricultural landscapes dominated by introduced grasses demonstrate minimal short-term plant community change unless initiated by intense land management practices (e g., plowing, re-seeding, or removal of dominant plant communities). Based upon results of this study, I conclude that restoration plans should repair damaged hydrological features before planting riparian plant species. Following this chronological sequence will minimize the potential destruction of planted communities by future shifts in water table elevation caused by hydrologic restoration. Furthermore, any active restoration that initiates a direct or indirect removal of the dominant plant community should be accompanied by aggressive plantings of desirable plant species and prolonged site maintenance.
Data from status and trends provide important long-term trend information about specific changes and places and the overall status of wetlands in the United States. The historical data base that the Service has developed through Status and Trends, provides photographic evidence of land use and wetlands extent dating back to the 1950s. This provides an accurate record to assist in future restoration efforts.--Publisher description.
Soils are neither good nor bad, but some have inherent or acquired characteristics that may or may not suit our intended use. Unsuitable characteristics are considered to be soil problems, soil constraints or soil limitations. Only twelve percent of global land is right for agricultural production without much limitation. Some soils have severe limitations for crop production. These soils are so called ‘problem soils’. Many of them do not have enough fertility to be productive; some are arid and saline; some are very sandy and dry; and some are wet and waterlogged for most of the growing season. The global demand for food, wood, fuel, fiber, medicine and other plant products for the 7.2 billion current world population has created such an immense pressure on global soil resources that even the most fertile soils are losing their productive capacity. We are being compelled to bring more and more unsuitable or marginally suitable soils under cultivation. Unless innovative and integrated soil, crop and environmental management practices are adopted for their improvement and sustainable use, further degradation is inevitable. This book, Management of Soil Problems, identifies the problems and discusses management options in a smooth and reader-friendly style. It will be useful for students and professionals of soil science, agriculture, forestry, geography and environmental sciences.
Home to sprawling Appalachian forests, rolling prairies, and the longest cave system in the world, Kentucky is among the most ecologically diverse states in the nation. Lakes, rivers, and springs have shaped and nourished life in the Commonwealth for centuries, and water has played a pivotal role in determining Kentucky's physical, cultural, and economic landscapes. The management and preservation of this precious natural resource remain a priority for the state's government and citizens. In this generously illustrated book, experts from a variety of fields explain how water has defined regions across the Commonwealth. Together, they illuminate the ways in which this resource has affected the lives of Kentuckians since the state's settlement, exploring the complex relationship among humans, landscapes, and waterways. They examine topics such as water quality, erosion and sediment control, and emerging water management approaches. Through detailed analysis and case studies, the contributors offer scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and general readers a wide perspective on the state's valuable water resources.
This is a preliminary evaluation of the status of the science of wetland creation and restoration in the United States. It contains a series of regional reviews. Each review summarizes wetland creation and restoration experiences in broadly defined wetland regions (e.g. Pacific coastal wetlands, wooded wetlands of the Southeast). It also includes a series of theme papers, covering a wide range of topics of general application to wetland creation and restoration (hydrology, management techniques, planning).
Swamps and marshes once covered vast stretches of the North American landscape. The destruction of these habitats, long seen as wastelands that harbored deadly disease, accelerated in the twentieth century. Today, the majority of the original wetlands in the US have vanished, transformed into farm fields or buried under city streets. In The Marsh Builders, Sharon Levy delves into the intertwined histories of wetlands loss and water pollution. The book's springboard is the tale of a years-long citizen uprising in Humboldt County, California, which led to the creation of one of the first U.S. wetlands designed to treat city sewage. The book explores the global roots of this local story: the cholera epidemics that plagued nineteenth-century Europe; the researchers who invented modern sewage treatment after bumbling across the insight that microbes break down pollutants in water; the discovery that wetlands act as efficient filters for the pollutants unleashed by modern humanity. More than forty years after the passage of the Clean Water Act launched a nation-wide effort to rescue lakes, rivers and estuaries fouled with human and industrial waste, the need for revived wetlands is more urgent than ever. Waters from Lake Erie and Chesapeake Bay to China's Lake Taihu are tainted with an overload of nutrients carried in runoff from farms and cities, creating underwater dead zones and triggering algal blooms that release toxins into drinking water sources used by millions of people. As the planet warms, scientists are beginning to design wetlands that can shield coastal cities from rising seas. Revived wetlands hold great promise for healing the world's waters.