Much of our energy this month centered around the submittal of a nationwide U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit application that would allow us to conduct many of the same restoration initiatives we have implemented on Standing Rush's West Marsh on the east. By contrast though, we have been asked to assemble a single "comprehensive" application for the East Marsh. If successful, what we accomplished in handful of discrete permits (on the west) could theoretically be implemented through this single application on the east.
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| One of my favorite marsh plants, arrowhead or "duck potato," pioneering its way into a fully drawn down Rest Pond, July 2020. (These types of vegetative "successes" are only possible thanks to improvements we have been able to make to both the earthen infrastructure and the related water control structures on the West Marsh.) |
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| We feel like a broken record, but our common refrain is: "Water levels dictate about everything else on the marsh." |
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| Our recently achieved ability to fully remove up to 3-4' of water off large expanses of the West Marsh (even when water levels in the adjacent bay are at or near record highs), allows us -- given the proper seasonal timing -- to establish an environment where a broad diversity of desirable annual and perennial herbaceous (native!) plants can then flourish. (July 6, 2020) |
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| We have to keep a very close eye on these early emergents to make sure we like what we are seeing: annual nutsedges and smartweeds along with perennial broadleaf cattail and soft-stemmed bulrush have become a familiar -- and desirable -- script over recent drawdowns. |
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| The goal is to encourage as much desirable vegetation as possible to promote native diversity and high nutritional value before gradually adding water back into the system -- in an effort to mimic natural processes and to discourage the germination or rhizomatous spread of our usual suspects of invasive species. (July 16, 2020) |
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| But undesirables (invasives) are a reality, and we have gotten pretty aggressive about singling out noxious flowering rush, even if it is one isolated clump among a sea of desirable plants (see below). Spot-treatment for solitary plants has become a mainstay of our management efforts throughout the summer months. |
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| While this might look like a dog stain in your front yard, it is actually the aftermath of a spot herbicide treatment to eliminate a solitary flower rush plant (highlighted with the red arrow). Unfortunately, it can take two or even three applications to eliminate both the stems and the even more persistent roots and nutlets beneath the soil. |
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| As an aside, one of the byproducts of a full drawdown is finding things that have been submerged, sometimes for a long time. This pile of "tufa rock" (a local calcium carbonate derived geological anomaly related to marl and worthy of its own future post) is a good example. Our guess is that it was imported by duck hunters many years -- like maybe 50-100 years -- ago to create a more stable base for blinding. A lot of work . . . all in the name of ducks! At some point, we want to obtain a geologists perspective. |