November 2019 Projects

Project: Multiple
County: Multiple

By Peter Ziegler, WWA Project Director

The landscape can provide many clues when looking to restore a wetland. I recently looked at a potential project that had a dead giveaway of a tile line failure. In all my years I had never seen such a clear indication of a drain tile failure which created this degree of back-pressure.

No a UFO did not land here.  This circular “crater” was formed due to a tile line below the ground that was not functioning properly.  It is so clear it give me great indication of what is happening.

  1. I know that the tile line plug is down slope from this spot.
  2. The tile line extends probably a considerable distance or elevation gain up-slope to create enough head pressure to blow out the clay soils from three to four feet below the surface.
  3. We have hydrology very near the surface indicating within the field a wetland that could be restored.
  4. Without any effort I have located the exact spot where the tile line is, which can be tricky many times without excavating.

The colder temps of early to mid-November had the majority of late migrating birds on the move.  After a wet fall, to say the least, these temps have actually helped WWA move forward on some projects.  We were busy in the west central part of the state, completing this 90 acre project in Jackson County last month.

Looking over the southern half of the Jackson County project site where a 5-foot deep drainage ditch was filled.

It will have a mix of open, emergent and wet meadow habitats.  This wide variety will provide great habitat for waterfowl through all the seasons in one of the most productive parts of the state.  This project was completed in conjunction with USF&WS and the landowner.  USF&WS helped WWA secure funding, permits, provided technical help and seed for the site.  The landowner provided equipment, pipes for the water control structure and install of the seed over the 90 acre project site.  This is one of those true partnership projects.  The design created a few small berms to impound water, filling of a main drainage ditch and disablement of thousands of feet of drain tile.