[Vision2020] Water: Reclaiming the wet landscape was What's missing

[Chris Storhok]

Nils,
Here is a link to a great program that combines wildlife protection and wetland restoration, hope you can find someone to apply for these funds.

http://www.fws.gov/birdhabitat/Grants/NAWCA/Standard/US/index.shtm  

If I were working for Latah County or the UI I would suggest using these funds to conduct further restorative work on the upper reaches of Crumarine (sp)Creek, Missouri Creek, Paradise Creek, and the head waters of the South Fork of Palouse River.  The region I would want to restore to season ponds, wetlands, and marshes would be those that are over the recharge zones for both major aquifer systems.  If one could slow the water up over those locations then I would expect that the recharge rate would greatly increase for both aquifers.  The appeal of conservation work in those boundary areas would help with a grant anyway since those same zones serve as the transition points between the palouse prairie habitat and the woody uplands on both Moscow Mountain and Paradise Ridge, the diversity of species is greatest there as is the population density.  These zones are critically important to both wildlife and man and should be restored as such.

Good luck,
Chris  


-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Nils Peterson
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 8:43 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Water: Reclaiming the wet landscape was What's missing




On 4/26/06 9:17 AM, James Reynolds wrote:

> ...When the Palouse was settled and made into a wheat producing landscape many
> small ponds, wetlands and such were drained off. These drained areas were
> perhaps the recharge engines for our upper aquifer. How about reclaiming some
> (many) of these areas for this? Federal, State, maybe even county technical
> asistence (maybe some monetary) would be available to start such a program and
> I expect our ever-growing urban farmer population on their 40 acre tracts
> would be interested in having a pond etc..

A friend who farms west of Pullman has used money from some federal program
to reclaim the land along his creek, adding a meander and two ponds, and
planting the whole area to a mix of native plants and fruit & nut trees.

Along the Troy Hwy, between Styner and Blaine, on the south side, is a small
rill and marshy area filled with cattails. The south boundary of this area
is the Paraside Path on the old RR embankment. The City mows the grassy
northern edge, but not the boggy part. There are a number of red wing
blackbirds that live there. We see the occasional duck also. Might it be
interesting to impound that water a bit more -- maybe 2 feet deep, and make
a pond? 

I've tried to enlist a UI landscape design class to think about the area
(Travois to Hwy 8; Blaine to Styner) as a linear park. You have just given
me an additional idea for that class project.

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