Stormwater University’s Post

The watershed contains vast wetlands, but there are also many smaller ones scattered across farms, waterfronts, school grounds, and other public and private properties. The methods used to protect, restore, or enhance wetlands vary widely. These actions could include planting vegetation, removing invasive plants and animals, picking up litter, building impoundments and ditches, or simply agreeing not to develop the land. However, one commonality of all wetlands is their beneficial impact on their surrounding environment.

Nearly half of the world's stone sheep habitat can be found in the rugged Northeast B.C., and in recent years, Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and the Forest Enhancement Society of BC, are together supporting the sheep and their habitat through the careful forest management practice of prescribed burning. Read how prescribed burns are helping the stone sheep habitat: https://lnkd.in/gcpXkiRm

The federal government, through the Department of Interior, has produced a report owning up to the impacts that the Northwest Dams have had on Native American communities and discusses their intentions to do something to address this. This needs to be done for federal projects in California too. The iconic fish of the main rivers of the Central Valley supported runs of salmon that allowed our region to thrive for 10s of thousands of years. While in the last 150 years, we figured out a way to nearly destroy this natural resource, and the federal government was a key participant. In the Southern San Joaquin Valley, there were a series of lakes: Kern, Buena Vista, Goose, and Pa’Ashi (Tulare) lakes. The biological diversity and quantity of wildlife these lakes supported gave the Tribes of our region the resources to thrive. These lakes are gone, except in big water years or as remnants that have access controlled by water districts and corporate farms. The rivers and streams that feed these lakes have similarly been modified, and in large part, marked with “No Trespassing”. The cultural identity of most of our region’s Tribes have always been tied to the water bodies where they lived, but now those water bodies are greatly diminished and off limits. This wholesale change over the last 150 years was driven by local settlers and the state, but could not have been accomplished without the enthusiastic assistance of the federal government in building dams and rerouting water. Let’s see a report by the feds owning up to these impacts and a discussion about how they will rectify this in the future. After 150 years of taking from nature in a manner that is now known to be unsustainable, let’s get some Native wisdom to guide us. And then we can all roll up our sleeves and get to work to re-wild our water bodies, invite the public to celebrate or region, and manage or agricultural rich Valley in a sustainable way that benefits all of us. https://lnkd.in/gBv4Y-gx

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Fix Our Forests Act, a bipartisan legislation that is an important step toward addressing wildfire risks through more efficient forest management practices. To learn more about this bill, read this blog by Max Metz Jr., the Conservation Program Director of HECHO. #healthyforests #firerisk #wildfires #forestmanagement

In the Missouri Bootheel, DU is working to reduce soil erosion, conserve water, improve water quality, mitigate flooding, and protect wildlife habitat. These conservation efforts are primarily focused in Southeast Missouri but also in Southern Illinois, Northeast Arkansas, and Western Kentucky. A group of four conservation consultants, Dave Wissehr, Tony Jaco, Brad Pobst, and Roger Frazier, work with historically underserved and socially disadvantaged landowners, securing easements, focusing on climate-smart rice production, and servicing 37,000 previously enrolled Wetland Reserve Easement program acres. #DucksUnlimited #DUConserve #conservation #wetlands #agriculture

We welcome Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announcement for hedgerow regulations to be brought into law to protect wildlife.🌳 With the nesting season just starting, hedgerows currently aren’t protected from inappropriate management. The regulations will support the efforts of many farmers already carrying our vital work to protect hedgerows, providing important ecological benefits including wildlife habitats, slowing soil erosion and water run-off, supporting crop pollinators and absorbing carbon. Our unique methods allow a hedge to be transplanted at up to 4m tall, the benefits of the hedge are retained within hours and not the 20-30 years of the traditional coppice and translocate method. We have witnessed a major infrastructure project remove 59m (a 42m and 17m section) of hedgerow along a major road, leaving two huge scars in the street scene and opening up views of previously hidden buildings. If they had engaged Ruskins we could have moved the hedge back to create the visibility splay and retain the street scene, as per the image below. 100m of the right hand hedge was transplanted to facilitate this development. If you're a developer interested in finding out how we can help ... ☎️ Call 01277 849990 today #treetransplanting #treespade #hedgerow #sustainability #environment

Country Life magazine are to be applauded for this article. Conservation is not solely the preserve of the 'conservation industry', significant success is achieved by others (and often for considerably less public money). Some excellent examples of farmers, landowners, shooting tenants and scientists highlighting the benefits of practical conservation by management. https://lnkd.in/eG85VCy7 #conservation #management #livingworkingcountryside

VDOT will install 135 new acres of pollinator habitats this year as part of our ongoing commitment to protect the valuable ecosystem provided by pollinators such as bees, birds, butterflies, bats, beetles, flies, and more. Pollinator corridors assist VDOT in efficiently delivering a safe transportation system. Roadside vegetation reduces erosion and stormwater runoff while providing sediment control. With more flowers and vegetation, VDOT beautifies the roadsides and saves time and money by reducing how often it needs to mow areas along the roadways. Additionally, roadsides with healthy plant communities can better resist invasive plants that can require the use of herbicides. 🐝 Learn more about pollinator conservation: https://bit.ly/3RrEaGo

With reports that Downing Street has blocked plans to release beavers into the wild, we thought it would be useful to re-share this article about our experience: https://lnkd.in/dH_g_XEH It was written last year in response to an EFRA committee report into the reintroduction of lost species – including beavers.  In it, our Director of Environment Strategy and Evidence, Sam Bridgewater discusses the benefits and challenges of having beavers on Estate land. #FloodManagement #Beavers #ClimateAction #SustainableSolutions

While many people think of wetland loss as something that happened in the past, it's very much still an ongoing problem. Critical habitat for threatened species continues to be lost despite rules now being in place to supposedly stop wetland loss. In 2021, property developer Beaches Development Limited (parent company Winton) and Franklin Tree Services Limited were charged with allegedly clearing vegetation from a wetland in the Coromandel town of Matarangi as part of a housing development. Last month, the Environment Court issued an enforcement order directing them to clean up the mess they created – hopefully allowing the wetland plants to regenerate. Tom Kay, Forest & Bird freshwater advocate, says, “It’s home to a lot of threatened species, like matuku-hūrepo Australasian bittern and moho pererū banded rails. We've even had reports from the local community hearing kiwi calls in the area as well." He says more needs to be done to stop this kind of wetland loss happening again. Despite these places being incredibly important, they continue to fall through the cracks. “There's the district councils, there's the regional councils, and there's some national regulations, but for some reason, at almost all of those steps, the developer themselves, with their consultant, the district council and the regional council, initially missed the fact that they had restrictions that would stop this clearance from happening.” Forest & Bird emphasise that ideally, this wouldn't have been cleared in the first place, but the current outcome should hopefully result in restoration. “The developer is committed to weed control and investing in conservation in the area – including a $100,000 donation to Project Kiwi that should be put into wetland restoration projects around the area because we need to get back what has been lost.” Read more at https://lnkd.in/g6yHV_dR 📹 Drone footage of the Matarangi wetland vegetation clearance. Supplied.