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Posts Tagged ‘wildlife’

Wetland plants that won’t feed the problem: a list of species nutria avoid

Posted in stormwater wetlands, tagged , , , on October 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Common rush/Juncus effusus. source: Wiki Commons
Southern blue flag iris/Iris virginica. Photo: Mary Carol Edwards
Blue waterleaf/Hydrolea ovata. Photo: Mary Carol Edwards
Salt marshmallow/Kosteletzkya virginica. Source: Wiki Commons
Royal flatsedge/Cyperus elegans. Photo: Mary Carol Edwards
Coastal water hyssop/Bacopa monnieri. Source: Wiki Commons
Horsetail/Equisetum hymenale. Source: Wiki Commons

Suppose you want to establish a wetland to clean up the water and create a bit of habitat, but before your plants can root and reproduce, something rips them out! Suppose your wetland is in a suburban or urban area where you don’t have the option of trapping, poisoning, shooting, re-fencing, and stocking with predators to deter whatever is sabotaging your wetland. (And needless to say, your wetland construction is on a budget and a deadline.) What are you going to do? (more…)

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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…)

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