Local Wetlands Restoration Project at VCU Rice Center

Photo by VCU Creative Services

The VCU Rice Center, “a nearly 500-acre field station for environmental research on the historic James River,” will soon participate in what Gary Robertson, VCU Director of Special Projects, refers to as “one of the most significant wetlands restorations on the East Coast.”

Virginia Commonwealth University, located in Richmond, Virginia, has partnered with both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The Nature Conservancy to restore original wetlands previously known as Kimages Creek.

The restoration project will go as follows:

“A 70-acre artificial lake created in the 1920s to attract ducks for duck hunters will be drained, and VCU will team with The Nature Conservancy to create a blanket of native wetland vegetation where the lake once stood.

Blueback Herring

American Eel

Alewife Herring

Kimages Creek, a stream that was blocked by the dam that created the lake, will flow freely again. That, in turn, will create a watery passage that will encourage the return of blueback herring and alewife, which once entered Kimages Creek to spawn before returning to the sea.

American eels – which Americans have both consumed and kept as pets -- are also expected to return.”

Leonard Smock, Ph.D., director of the VCU Rice Center, disclosed that this restoration project has been three years in the making. He foresees that the restoration project will cause a research boom at the wetlands due to an influx of scientists from varying disciplines and students doing specialized research for the Graduate program.

Smock goes on to express the hope that “Forty years from now, this area will still be evolving …scientists and students will still be coming to study the wetland.”

In addition to the escalation in research that the Rice Center will have access to, another important aspect to remember is the return of animal species, such as the blue herring and alewife, which helped to support local commercial fisheries in the past. However, Greg Garman, Ph.D., director of the Center for Environmental Studies at the Rice Center, is quick to remind everyone that “…these populations have declined to critical levels over the past several decades, in large part to the construction of dams, like the one at the Rice Center,  that block upstream migration for spawning.” Therefore, the Project’s true test will be whether or not the indigenous wetland species return to the place they once flourished.

The funding for such a large undertaking as this is provided by The Virginia Aquatic Resources Trust Fund who will be “paying the costs of removing the dam that blocks Kimages Creek and for replanting the wetland at the Rice Center” (Robertson). And the trust will be administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a joint venture with The Nature Conservancy.

Robertson further reports that “The Rice Center also will receive $455,000 from the trust fund stemming from a conservation easement on 217 acres of its property. The payment will go toward construction of a major research building on the site. In addition, VCU will be paid by the trust to monitor the development of the wetland restoration over the next 10 years.”

Smock refers to the funding as “very important” due to its ability to provide the Rice Center with new research facilities to measure the Wetlands Restoration Project’s success in the long term.

And finally, Smock understands the importance of this project to the Rice Center and Virginia Commonwealth University as a whole, but more than anything, he wants all onlookers to realize that “we’re doing the right thing for the environment.”

The amount of effort it takes to undo what man has done to the environment is unbelievable, but the fact is with enough passion and enough determination…it can be done. 

All quoted material from VCU News Center

Temporary Wetlands for Migrating Birds: Flooded Farmlands

For a full, unedited transcript of the above video, visit National Geographic

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused irreparable damage to the surrounding wetlands and its inhabitants; however, there seems to be hope on the horizon for numerous migratory birds heading south for the winter. In the wake of such a disaster, there is a plan in place to create temporary wetlands for migrating birds by flooding farmlands not currently in use. The ultimate objective is to keep the migratory birds away from the oil polluted wetlands of the Gulf while cleanup efforts continue.

This project is the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative established by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. According to the NRCS, the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative was created specifically “to improve habitat conditions and safeguard food sources for the migratory birds that could be impacted by the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill.” And in order to create enough available wetlands for any migrating birds wishing to take advantage of the clean water, NRCS is working with “private landowners, U. S. Coast Guard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other conservation partners to establish habitat and food sources on participating lands for the migrating birds.” It is the hard work and devotion of the numerous people and agencies that make this Initiative a success.

The eight states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas) participating in the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative are all located in “in major North American flyways, the primary routes shorebirds and waterfowl follow in their annual migration to and through the Gulf region.”

The Initiative’s popularity came as a surprise to the NRCS; interest in getting involved in the effort exceeded any preconceived expectations and there is now a waiting list for farmers wanting to join the cause.

To see photographs of migrating waterfowl, visit NRCS Bird Images

*all quoted material from NRCS