Pumping: About Time to Move Some Water

West Pump and spillway -- set up to pump from the marsh
[top half of photo] to the Bay [behind me, as the photographer]

'Tis the season, I guess, but I woke up to raindrops on the skylights for the third morning in a row. Our neighborhood has enough standing water that the mallards are starting to infiltrate to set up nesting locations among swing sets and rows of densely packed boxwood bushes. There is certainly a chill in the air, but it’s definitely April.

My wife would tell you I’ve always been a weather “freak.” What I love to do most (fishing, hunting, etc.) tends to be pretty weather dependent. Now my work is that way, too. Several of the chances for “showers” late this past week have resulted in sustained rains that were measured in inches rather than tenths of an inch. We are forecast to get a break this weekend, but it’s supposed to get back to it (potentially with another inch+ on Monday/Tuesday), so it will likely be time to get pumping.

We refer to the property as the West Marsh and the East Marsh. While the 2-lane State Route 269 is the north/south that serves as the delineating line, the truth is, the entire system is connected – by large pipes, at least. 

Each "management unit" is defined by the "dike" or raised earthen levee that surrounds it. Pipes and pumps are often the means to allow water in or to take water out of a given unit. There will be plenty more discussion on this subject and on why this is the current state of many, if not most, coastal marshes on Lake Erie and beyond. It obviously isn't ideal relative to what once was, but in our estimation, it's the best we can achieve considering all that has changed since Europeans began settling and since population densities really started to increase.

We may move water (intentionally) for a variety of reasons. This time of year, we pump primarily to keep up with precipitation -- to keep water low enough that strong spring winds and the resulting wave action won't deteriorate the earthen dikes that are allowing us to help a diverse natural world thrive inside the marsh.