Wetland enhancement in Midwest could help reduce catastrophic floods of the future .

According to a new study from Oregon State University, restoration of wetlands in the Midwest has the potential to significantly reduce peak river flows during floods—not only now, but also in the future if heavy rains continue to increase in intensity.

Wetland restoration could also provide a small step toward a hydrologic regime in this region that more closely resembles its historic nature, before roads and cities were constructed, forests were lost, and millions of acres tile-drained to increase agricultural production.

An evaluation of potential wetlands in one watershed in central Indiana found that if just 1.5 percent of the land were used for wetlands, the peak flow of the overall watershed could be reduced by up to 17.5 percent. Also of importance, researchers said, is that expansion of wetlands appears to provide significant benefits across a wide range of possible climate scenarios. The study was published in Ecological Engineering, in work supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Flood management in the Midwest is now almost entirely concentrated on use of dams and levees,” said Meghna Babbar-Sebens, an assistant professor of civil engineering in the College of Engineering, and the Eric H.I. and Janice Hoffman Faculty Scholar at OSU.

“Wetland construction or restoration could provide a natural and ecological option to help with flood concerns, and serve as an additional tool for flood management. Greater investments in this approach, or similar approaches that increase storage of water in the upper landscape of a watershed, should be seriously considered.”

What was that? More wetlands in the midwest could reduce flooding and improve water quality? Get out! If only there was some crazy way the farmers could have those wetlands for free – providing a buffer for their crops and absorbing all those harmful nitrates. The article says there isn’t much funding for wetland restoration. Isn’t there anyway this could get done without a lot of money?

Wetlands help reduce some of these flooding problems by storing water away from stream channels and releasing it more slowly, while also improving water quality and providing wildlife habitat. Other studies have shown that wetland construction in the Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri river basins could also significantly reduce nitrogen loads in the rivers, which has led to an enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.

Robin Ellison just sent this perfect addition!

Rusty Cohn

Speaking of wetland restoration and Napa, Rusty took this last night at Tulocay pond in Napa when he was lucky enough to see FOUR beavers. Oh, I love the breathless anticipation of this time of year, or I would if we had any beavers still in Martinez.

Sniff.

Yesterday beaver watchers were treated to the sight of three beavers in the bank near the footbridge. Three! This morning we watched from 5:30 to 7:00 and saw no one but these three little fuzzy ducks, who had gone to nap on the bank while mom preened. Two days ago there were four and a week ago there were eight, but such is the life of baby ducks! Lets hope these last three are the smartest ever.

What I was able to see, though, was video footage of three otters at the old lodge taken on wednesday morning by Moses who sadly declined to share it with the website. They were popping out of the water, chewing dramatically and going in and out the lodge. Otters are talented in lots of ways, but they can’t dig their own burrows or make a lodge. They are ‘obligate nesters’ of a sort. They often use abandoned beaver lodges to have pups, who are born helpless and furless and unlike beavers, can’t swim for weeks. Every year we have seen otters march hopefully into our beavers lodges and watched as beavers marched them right out. This year things may be different.

After a while the otters started to do something I have never seen before. Ripping out tules and carrying them into the lodge. A lot of tules. Bedding? Certainly they aren’t planning to eat them. It looked very much like nesting but it is late in the year for mom to pup I think, and unlikely that two others would be with her when she did. I can’t imagine what was going on but I’m inclined to think that it has something to do with why none of our three beavers went upstream to sleep yesterday. Hmmm. Stay tuned and keep watch on the upper pond.

Yesterday I got word from Sharon Brown of Beavers:Wetlands & Wildlife that an article she wrote with hydrologist Suzanne Fouty was appearing in this Sping’s issue of LAKELINE magazine. It’s sadly not available online, but I’ll give you an illicit taste in case you want to track it down. Great work ladies, if I wasn’t a beaver fan already this would be a powerful sell!