UF Wetlands Club blog – April 20, 2012
UF Wetlands Club is proud to announce that we were awarded the 2012 Club of the Year for College of Agricultural and Life Sciences College Council! We will continue our efforts towards enhancing public understanding towards wetland values and function through educational activities, service projects, clean-ups and trips! http://ufwetlandsclub.blogspot.com/2012/04/cals-club-of-year-award.html

Moderator: Mike Houck – America’s Wild Reed – May 6, 2012
This past weekend I took a seven-mile stroll from my northwest Portland apartment to nearby Forest Park.  Half-way back I heard that shrill-high pitched call of a bald eagle.  Then, there were two, four and finally six bald eagles kettled high  above the forest canopy—the hot white light of the sun’s glare making it impossible to tell young from adult.  Six bald eagles in a 5,000-acre forest, a ten minute walk from my home in the densest neighborhood in the Portland metropolitan region.  I’m tempted to use my last blog to recount similar encounters with the urban wild over the past forty-two years. http://wildread.blogspot.com/2012/05/building-green-cities.html

From local issues to national concerns:  The topic of tar sands crude oil pipeline proposals in my community of Maine is echoed throughout the New England region, and throughout the U.S. all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. In southern Maine, Sebago Lake, the source of drinking water for the city of Portland, Maine and surrounding towns, plays a prominent role in a number of environmental advocacy groups’ efforts to halt proposals for pumping tar sands through the state. The pipeline currently runs from South Portland, Maine through the Lakes Region towns, including Windham, where ASWM is headquartered, crossing Panther Run and the Crooked River, which feed Sebago Lake. This is just one small area of the longer pipeline, which would cross through many other watersheds throughout New England.

After I presented information at my local conservation commission meeting, I ran into a few neighbors and residents who commented on the issue of a tar sands pipeline proposal that could have an impact on Maine’s watersheds and natural resources.  One business owner said, “They’re still cleaning up the spill in Michigan! If that happened here, we’d be done.” Similar views have been expressed at town meetings, on PBS presentations (winter 2012) and at university informational sessions in southern Maine. The Natural Resources Council of Maine has an ongoing project informing citizens about the proposal and its potential impacts to Maine, as well as the Enbridge proposals for tar sands pipelines elsewhere in the country. For a fact sheet on Tar Sands, Keystone Pipeline Project in Maine (2012), click here.

What are tar sands and where do they come from? Tar sands are a mixture of clay, sand, water and bitumen, a heavy black viscous oil.  The process extracts the bitumen from the other materials and requires other treatment before it can be refined.  It is so thick it requires dilution with additional hydrocarbons before it can be transported through pipelines when it can be later turned into conventional heating oil. This process of transporting it in pipelines has many potentially hazardous impacts to water and other natural resources in the event of a spill.  Once the tar sands crude oil is transported, the process of turning it into conventional oil is not cost-effective or ecologically sensible.  The process releases more than double the harmful greenhouse gasses than conventional heating oil does during production. (See Scientific American.) Currently, the bulk of the tar sands originate in Alberta, Canada—where large pools called tar pits have replaced wetlands. These tar pits are big enough to be seen from space. The most threatened habitat are Canada’s boreal forests, which is 1.3 billion acres of wetlands—among the largest in-tact wetland ecosystems on Earth. Unfortunately, most of the wastewater involved with the tar sands production ends up in streams and rivers throughout the boreal forest, contaminating the wetlands and threatening bird and wildlife habitat. For Alberta’s Government webpage on oil sands, click here.

According to mining company reports, 64% of the mining landscape is made up of peatlands. (See related study, “Oil sands mining and reclamation cause massive loss of peatland and stored carbon.”)  There’s some effort underway to restore the wetlands that have been affected by tar sands in Alberta. Oil Sands Wetlands Reclamation: Syncrude, Suncor Plan To Reconstruct Fens It’s unconventional wetland restoration on a large scale. Essentially they’re hoping to recreate a 50-hectare watershed, not just a wetland, for one project. That’s about 125 acres of wetlands and waters. The University of Waterloo’s department of geography and environmental management is involved with the watershed restoration planning. It’s been called a Tar Sands Wetlands Reclamation. However, some Canadian wetland scientists are doubtful that this will work to restore the wetlands.  They say, “Instead of bogs and fens, the industry will build hills topped by plantation forests and fill large man-made lakes with toxic waste bordered by shrubs and salty marshes.” (Rooney, et.al., 2011)

“It’s a completely different landscape,” says study co-author Suzanne Bayley, one of Canada’s top wetland ecologists and a University of Alberta professor. See Scientists Doubt Fix to Wetlands Damaged by Oil Sands Furthermore, fewer wetlands means drier conditions and more fire hazards. See a related presentation on The State of Oil Sands Wetlands Reclamation and Slow Down Oil Sands to Save Wetlands, Scientist Says –with details from a related study of Canadian wetlands. For an Alberta wetlands fact sheet by Water Matters, click here.

So what about tar sands pipelines in the U.S.? In addition to the discussions ongoing in New England, there’s a lot of information available on the potential impacts and environmental risks of tar sands pipeline projects nationally. See Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks

By Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, et.al. – February 2011

Tar Sands Invasion: How Dirty and Expensive Oil from Canada Threatens America’s New Energy Economy By NRDC, Earth Works, Sierra Club, et. al. – May 2010.

Further reading:

Study Disputes Oil Sands ‘Restoration’ Pledge (NY Times Green Blog, March 2012)
Tran-Canada’s New Permit Still Threatens Nebraska’s Water and U.S. Energy Security New Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Permit Rejected by Nebraska Residents
In through the backdoor: Is Enbridge Inc. trying to bring tar sands to Central Canada and New England?
Sulfide Mining Regulation in the Great Lakes Region (includes links to series of reports on impacts to water resources in several states –WI, MI, MN, plus Ontario)
Cattle Ranchers, Environmentalists and the Keystone XL Pipeline
Video: Robert Redford and Waterkeeper Alliance on XL Keystone Pipeline Protest (2011)

By Rebecca Bruno – USGS Blog – March 28, 2012
Bogs, marshes, estuaries, coral reefs, lagoons, swamps, prairie potholes, lakes, pocosins, vernal pools, mudflats, fens, ponds, mires, deltas, billabongs, lagoons, floodplains:  wetlands are the unsung heroes of the world’s ecosystems. They are critical to the world’s environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic health. May is the 21^st annual American Wetlands Month, a time to celebrate the essential role wetlands play in giving us food; sheltering us from storms, floods, and coastal erosion; providing habitat for birds, fish, and other wildlife; and cleaning and storing water before returning it to us again. http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/2011/03/28/celebrate-american-wetlands-month-and-wade-into-usgs-wetlands-research/

By Sarah Brzezinski – Bay Backpack – May 7, 2012
This May marks the 21st anniversary of American Wetlands Month! Wetlands are the transitional areas between land and water that are defined based on their soil and vegetation type. All wetlands are dominated by hydrophytes, which are plants that are adapted for life in wet soils. Wetlands also have hydric soils, which are soils that are periodically saturated or flooded. http://blog.baybackpack.com/?p=2529

Around the country there are numerous American Wetland Month celebrations.

General Information is available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency American Wetlands Month Wetlands Education: http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/outreach/education_index.cfm

The U.S Geological Survey has a webpage highlighting important research conducted to help scientists and wetland practitioners understand wetlands.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has suggestions about activities to undertake during American Wetlands Month: http://www.fws.gov/home/feature/2009/Wetland/index.htm

There are sites with state information about American Wetlands Month such as those in Wisconsin and Nebraska.

There are also local events.  Take, for example, the state of Oregon, where the city of Eugene has plans  http://www.myeugene.org/2011/04/22/eugene-events-celebrate-american-wetlands-month/ as well as restaurants like Newman’s in Cannon Beach http://newmansat988.com/blog/tag/american-wetlands-month/.

Sadly while wetlands are worth celebrating, there are reasons to be very concerned about their future.  Changes to the Farm Bill threaten millions of acres of wetlands but it’s not the only piece of legislation that, if passed as introduced, would threaten wetlands.

In Congress, S. 2122 and H.R. 4304 – “Defense of Environment and Property Act of 2012” removes wetlands from the Clean Water Act, prohibits use of a significant nexus test and requires double compensation of any regulatory action that diminishes the value of a property.

Less direct, S. 1389 and H.R. 3347 – “A bill to exempt any road, highway, or bridge damaged by a natural disaster, including a flood, from duplicative environmental reviews if the road, highway, or bridge is reconstructed in the same location.” This exempts the reconstruction of any road, highway, or bridge that has been damaged by a natural disaster and reconstructed in the same location from environmental regulations.  This is cause for concerns because if infrastructure is built back exactly like what was lost, it may remain vulnerable to future floods.  If it is not, then the changes can have a profound negative impact on aquatic resources. (These and other bills before Congress can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php)

Many bills get introduced into Congress that do not pass.  Nevertheless given decreasing federal budget and opposition to environmental regulations and in particular wetland protection in Congress, it is likely that the responsibility to protect, conserve and manage wetlands and other aquatic habitat will fall increasingly on the shoulders of state, tribal and local government.

Here there are also challenges.   Legislation passed by states may also lead to the loss and destruction of wetlands. Wisconsin passed Act 118 this past February which weakens some portions of the Wisconsin statutes that protected wetlands. http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lc/publications/im/IM2012_05.pdf

But there are also resources available to help states evaluate opportunities to improve conservation of state wetland resources.  The Association of State Wetland Managers website has extensive information about state wetland programs http://aswm.org.  In addition the National Conference of State Legislatures has added information on wetland programs to their website: http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/env-res/wetlands.aspx.

Financing state wetland programs is often a significant hurdle. The UNC Environmental Finance Center has created two new resources for the Sustainable Finance for State and Tribal Wetland Programs project. Both are available on the project website, http://www.efc.unc.edu/projects/wetlands/.   The first resource is an interactive reference guide on federal grants available for wetland programs. The second resource is a page of information about how state and tribal programs fund one specific core element, regulatory activities, with a particular emphasis on permit fees.

Celebrating wetlands is important, but it is not enough.  If wetlands are valuable, then actively engaging in finding ways to protect and conserve them is important as well.  One way is to share ideas and concerns with elected representatives including members of Congress and State legislators.

The Washington Post – April 28, 2012
Wildlife experts are trying to return a healthy dolphin to the ocean after it became stranded by swimming into a narrow wetlands channel along the southern California coast. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/raw-video-dolphin-trapped-in-calif-wetlands/2012/04/28/gIQAjLHenT_video.html?tid=pm_national_vid

Wayward Dolphin Remains in Bolsa Chica Wetlands for a 4^th Day (VIDEO)

By Jason Kandel – NBC Southern California – April 30, 2012
Dolphin swam into Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach, drawing a crowd of onlookers and prompting rescuers to try and coax it out to sea. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Wayward-Dolphin-Bolsa-Chica-Wetlands-Huntington-Beach-149496715.html

NOAA announced this month that eight Gulf coast restoration projects will begin this year with $60 million earmarked for the work to create marshes, improve coastal dune habitat, restore oyster beds and reefs, and other projects related to the boat industry.  The first phase of the projects will take place in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. There is more information about these restoration projects at www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov and www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon

Specific project fact sheets on each restoration project involved in this first phase of the Gulf Coast Restoration, called “Early Restoration,” an effort to get the natural resources back to the state prior to the spill, are available on NOAA’s website.  To learn more about the Gulf Coast Early Restoration efforts underway, go to: http://www.gulfspill
restoration.noaa.gov/
restoration/early-restoration/

As part of the response to the spill two years ago, a number of organizations and agencies have worked hard to address the critical needs of wildlife that depended on the coastal wetlands that were contaminated or destroyed by the spill. For example, a shorebird habitat enhancement project provided alternative habitat in Mississippi for waterfowl. A sea turtle project improved nesting and hatching on the Texas coast.

The Gulf coast’s diverse shoreline includes mangroves, cypress swamps, fresh and saltwater marshes and mudflats. What’s really at stake here? More than half of the coastal wetlands in the lower 48 states are located on the Gulf coast, which is also where the majority of coastal wetland loss has been occurring.  About 40% of these are in Louisiana. (NOAA) There is an important link between the healthy coastal marshes, their ecological role in serving as a nursery for invertebrates and small fish, and the larger fisheries and their health—which in turn, have a big impact on both the economy and well-being of people along the Gulf coast. In a healthy coastal marsh, the wetland soils and vegetation protect the land from storm surge, reduce flooding and improve water quality in the surrounding watershed. In a coastal marsh that has been contaminated by oil, the vegetation dies and the soil no longer has the ability to hold its position; it becomes more likely to erode during storms and even day-to-day tidal activity. Coastal wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate, becoming open ocean.

One would think that cleaning up the oil during the response to the disaster would have solved the problem of contaminated marshes. But it doesn’t work that way. The vulnerable wetlands were threatened by the clean-up response methods intended to save them. The tools used to prevent oil from contaminating shorelands, including booms, got stuck in the wetlands.  Other techniques used to remove the oil disturbed and killed vegetation and other living things. Oily mats smothered mudflats and sand removal disturbed the beach habitat. These unintended impacts have been monitored and a number of contaminated marsh studies will help the response teams to evaluate these impacts and clean-up methods. For more information, see this Status Update: Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NOAA, April 2012).

Related blogs:

Gulf Restoration Network (includes photo slide show): Bird’s Eye View: An Earth Day Reflection In Photos Of The Last 2 Years Of The BP Drilling Disaster

Huffington Post blogs and videos of Gulf Oil Spill

Response & Restoration (NOAA) blog

8 Gulf coast restoration projects announced

Environmental Defense Fund blog: ASFPM Agrees: Some Gulf oil spill fines should go to Gulf restoration (Feb. 2012)

For background information on the impact of the oil spill on wetlands and related media over the past two years, visit ASWM’s Gulf Oil Spill Impact on Wetlands page.

8 Towns and the Great Marsh report

By James Nutter – Gulf of Maine Institute – March 4, 2012
On Monday March 19th, Eight Towns and the Great Marsh met at Ipswich Town Hall from 7 to 9 p.m.  First on the agenda was the Great Marsh Revitalization Task Force, and a PowerPoint was presented in order to explain its actions and purpose. In this group, which is aimed towards restoring the Great Marsh, is a Resource and Research Committee led by state senators Bruce Tarr and Steve Baddour. They have been leading mapping of phragmites in the Great Marsh, specifically in the Plum Island area. http://www.gulfofmaineinstitute.com/?p=375

WBAL-TV– April 20, 2012
Students and environmentalists spent the day Friday creating floating wetlands that will be released into the Inner Harbor to help better the Chesapeake Bay and the environment. http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/Floating-wetlands-to-help-clean-up-Inner-Harbor/-/10131532/11252174/-/p52jvyz/-/index.html