This is just impressive.......
Work has been completed on the first phase of the $3.5 million Goosepond/Beehunter Marsh Wilder Farms Wetlands Reserve Restoration Project.
This massive, nearly 8,000 acre project will restore one of the most significant waterfowl use areas in Indiana due to its size, historic use by wildlife, proximity to federal and state owned natural areas, and location near the Wabash and White rivers.
Approximately 1,200 acres in the Beehunter Marsh have now been fully restored, according to Dan Luczynski, resource conservationist with the Greene County office of Natural Resources Conservation Service.
"We worked all summer putting dikes up and water control structures in," he said.
The $800,000 phase of the project was inspected and approved by Ducks Unlimited officials on Sept. 10.
In 2000, the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) purchased permanent easement from the current landowner, Florida businessman Maurice Wilder, for more than $7 million and began restoration of the wetland and wildlife habitat on the property.
Restoration efforts include 25 miles of earthen dikes and a permanent 2,750-acre shallow water impoundment. Through the NRCS Wetlands Reserve Program, the property will be protected forever as wetland and wildlife habitat, but it currently remains in private ownership.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is still negotiating with Wilder for purchase of the property.
In July, the state offered Wilder $5.5 million for the property, but he turned the deal down.
Deputy DNR director John Davis said Monday afternoon that talks are continuing with Wilder, who has told officials that he would put the property up for auction if a deal can't be worked out.
"We're continuing to have conversations with Wilder. We still have hopes that this thing can be worked out," Davis said.
Davis called the Wilder Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) project an historically significant wetland complex, located about two miles south of Linton. He said the state would prefer to have it in public ownership with the DNR assisting in the development of a recreational plan that could serve as an economic boost to the area.
The Goosepond unit is a glacial wetland basin drained by Black Creek, and Brewer Ditch within the White River Drainage Basin.
The restored complex will include about 5,000 acres of swamp (woody), marsh (herbaceous), wet meadow and open water components.
The adjacent uplands have been planted to native trees, warm season grasses and forbs, and savanna habitat. The total WRP easement area encompasses approximately 7,200 acres, of which the Goosepond component makes up about 6,000 acres. The remainder of the easement is located approximately one mile east at Beehunter Marsh.
If the deal were worked out, the 8,000-acre Goosepond area would be the largest single purchase of recreational land in state history.
While the future ownership remains unknown, NRCS officials are forging ahead with their restoration plans.
"We're going ahead and doing our plans, our restoration regardless of what happens with the property. Whether Maurice Wilder retains it, keeps it or sells it to the DNR or somebody else, we are going ahead with our initial plans for restoration," Luczynski said. "It's moving along and we are making progress."
NRCS project manager Jeff Coats, from Vincennes, agreed and said, "We're here to restore the wetland no matter who owns it. We're plowing ahead with our plans."
He predicted the entire restoration project would be finished in late 2007 or early 2008.
"I would like to be moving a little quicker, but it just takes time," Coats added.
State Highway 59 essentially runs through the middle of the proposed main basin of the Goosepond unit. Details have yet to be worked out with the Indiana Department of Transportation on the state highway in the area and the construction of two pull-off wildlife observation points, according to Coats.
The next restoration construction phase will go into the 5,900-acre Goosepond area and contracting the units 1 through 6 -- along the southeastern portion of the property -- which is divided into 16 total units. That six units will be completed in 2005 and a contract will be awarded for the remaining 10 units in 2006.
A site showing will be conducted on Oct. 14 -- with a contract expected to be awarded in 45 to 60 days. This would involve about 1,500 acres with 425 acres of shallow water development consisting of dikes and water control structures. This phase would have 41,000 linear feet of dike constructed, Luczynski estimated.
Water in this area will average two to three feet in most places, but may be as much as six to eight feet in some areas, he said.
Currently, there is a minimal amount of water in the Beehunter Marsh area.
"It's all based on the amount of rain. The watershed going into those units and the amount of rain we have had and it's pretty dry out there today. The macrotypography we created out there, there is some water out there now. Some of those units are obviously drying up, but that is the function of a wetland. That is what we want," Luczynski said.
The Beehunter Marsh and the Goosepond development will receive surface water, ground water and flood or overflow waters from adjacent ditch areas.
Open water and emergent marsh habitat will be restored. Water from direct precipitation, runoff, and flooding events will be captured by the construction of dikes. The dikes will be curvilinear in design resulting in the increase of edge and a more natural appearance. Borrow for the construction of dikes shall be taken in a creative manner, emphasizing "natural" meanders and other irregular shapes. A prairie grass seed mixture will be seeded on the dikes to provide a vegetative barrier to reed canary grass and to add additional habitat benefits. All areas between the dikes and utility easements will be planted to prairie grasses and forbs.
Macrotopography (ridges, swales and depressions) have been created throughout the project area in order to restore the natural topography and to capture and hold water. These will capture and retain water from precipitation and flooding events. The depressions will serve as important reptile and amphibian habitats for both breeding and cover/foraging. Waterfowl such as wood ducks will also use these areas to rest, nest, and raise broods.
Some of the wetland units are designed to be used as moist soil units. In these units, water levels may be manipulated to favor prolific seed producing annual plants such as barnyard grass and smartweed species. Water control structures and pumps may be utilized in the management of moist soil units.
"We'll be taking the flood waters out of the ditches and putting them in the units," Luczynski said. "Obviously, you are going to need a certain storm event to get that ditch high enough. It's all feed by pressure. The pipes are at about the normal pool level of the creeks so the elevation will have to get up to a certain level to start pushing water back into the units."
Early topographic maps show the area as permanent shallow water lakes surrounded by marshes, swampland, woodland and prairie. The Goosepond is one of the lowest elevations in the county, even lower than the White River at the same latitude. Although it once supported a considerable number of waterfowl, extensive drainage efforts since the early 1900s have converted approximately 95 percent of the area to cropland. All streams draining the area have been dredged and protected by levees to convey water around the lower lying wetland basin. The streams are essentially earthen aqueducts.
The soil in much of the basin has a clay content exceeding 70 percent, which greatly restricts subsurface drainage. The cropland has been tiled and drained with lateral surface drains emptying into an extensive ditch system. The open ditches convey runoff waters to pump stations where the water is pumped over the levees into the ditched creeks. Since it is a natural basin with low, level topography and tight subsoil, flooding has been a constant agricultural concern requiring continual maintenance of the drainage systems. This drainage problem is likely the reason for a large portion of the area changing ownership eleven times in approximately 35 years. Both federal and state agencies have considered the area for acquisition and restoration at various times since the early 1950s, according to the DNR.
The Wilder WRP project will also provide critical migrating and wintering waterfowl habitat. The area is ideally located between the Wabash and White Rivers to receive migratory bird flights using the eastern portion of the Mississippi Flyway. Resident Canada geese at nearby Minnehaha State Wildlife Management Area in Sullivan County and upwards of 35,000 migrant geese using Hovey Lake to the south in Posey County can be expected to make extensive use of the area. Migratory waterfowl will also use the area as a spring staging area for northern bound birds needing a high protein diet for successful nesting, according to DNR officials.
Shore birds and other water birds will also make extensive use during migration. DNR officials believe the area can be expected to become an important feeding and resting area for herons, egrets, and the Greater Sandhill crane. Significant nesting use by bitterns, and rails along the marsh edges is anticipated. The area will likely attract osprey, and northern harriers are already present.
Restoration of some areas of bottomland forest will eventually provide new nesting habitat for neo-tropical migrant birds. Marshland fur-bearers such as beaver, muskrat and mink will increase, as habitat becomes available. The area will provide habitat for amphibians and reptiles, including some threatened and endangered species. The state listed Northern Crawfish Frog has already been documented as using the site.
"The Audubon Society has put the Goosepond on one of their routes for sightseeing and they are recorded species there that they haven't seen before out there," Luczynski added.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks