Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘stormwater wetlands’

Floating an new idea

Posted in Bay-friendly, children in nature, freshwater inflows, Galveston Bay, native plants, runoff pollution, stormwater, tagged , , , , , , on September 6, 2013| 1 Comment »

We are moving closer to installing floating wetland islands in what may be the first such project at a school in Texas, and one of the first public installations anywhere in the state. The floating wetlands will be in the storm water detention basin (aka “the pond”) of the Education Village campus in League City TX, part of the Clear Creek Independent School District (CCISD).

islands composite

Left: Floating wetland islands in Canada. Source: Biohavens International. Right: A pilot project in Baltimore Harbor. Source: Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore.

What is a floating wetland? It’s a small buoyant man-made island that grows wetland plants. CCISD’s islands will be made of a dense mesh of recycled plastic fibers produced by Martin Ecosystems. These floating wetlands have plant, soil and root interactions similar to a natural wetland and provide surfaces for colonies of beneficial water-cleaning microorganisms. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Wetland launched into (a new) space!

Posted in coastal prairies, environmentally friendly landscaping, native plants, rain garden, stormwater wetlands, tagged , , , , , , on August 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Heron-small

A Yellow-crowned Night Heron stalks the new wetland on the grounds of the Johnson Space Center.

Visiting the Johnson Space Center (JSC), you probably anticipate a vision of a high tech future in space.  But to address a more down-to-earth aspect of the space center’s operation, Chris LaChance and I were invited to NASA by Sandy Parker of the JSC Environmental Office to consult on transforming a landscape problem area from boggy lawn to JSC’s first created wetland.

The JSC landscape maintenance contractor, Prodyn EPES, needed a way to deal with the water that pooled in a low spot between a weather station building, parking lots, and a jogging trail. It tended to be too wet to mow, so something else had to be done—and done on a tight budget. At about 2200 square feet, it was too large to be economically practical as a rain garden, which can sometimes require considerable excavation, an underdrain, porous soils, and a selection of predominantly nursery-raised native plants. Chris thought the site had more potential as a created wetland, so she brought me along on the mission.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Roads and lily pads: there’s a link?

Posted in stormwater, stormwater wetlands, tagged , , , , , on June 20, 2013| 1 Comment »

Water lilies in the Mason Park wetlands (Photo: Milt Gray), public bikes (Wikimedia Commons)

Water lilies in the Mason Park wetlands (Photo: Milt Gray), public bikes (Wikimedia Commons)

Once in a while, a newspaper article about pedestrian bridges makes a brush with stormwater management. Sounds pretty random, right?

This recent one in the Houston Chronicle doesn’t spell out the connections between transportation planning and managing stormwater, but we know that vehicles are a source of pollutants which wash off roads into storm drains. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts