A Closer Look at Wetlands

by Alex Pittman, Habitat Restoration Specialist

Let’s go ahead and start from the beginning. What exactly is a wetland? Most people have some sense of the value and/or limits of having a wetland on their property, but it’s not always easy to explain why wetlands have value or where the line is between wetland and upland. There are an overwhelming number of wetland definitions floating around. Most of them will leave you less clear than before, but there is one definition that lies at the core of most wetland policy in the U.S.

Wetlands are areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.

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Crystal clear, right? The key words here are water, soil and vegetation. A simpler way to say the same thing is that wetlands are areas that are wet enough— long enough and often enough — to support plants that thrive in wet soils. How wet that actually is can be very different from wetland to wetland, and what the soils and vegetation look like as a result of that wetness can also vary a lot between wetlands. There’s tremendous variety in what a wetland actually looks like, and there are several different wetland classifications that you’ve probably heard before which reflect some of that variety: bog, fen, swamp, marsh, etc.

Why Should We Care About Wetlands?

Wetlands have long been viewed as wastelands, which is understandable. They typically look messy, they’re often full of bugs, and they make it really difficult to grow crops, raise livestock, or build a home. It’s really only been in the past handful of decades that we’ve really started to understand the value and benefit of wetlands to fish, wildlife, and people, and it’s really only been in the past couple of decades that any real regulation of wetlands has taken place.

To be sure, there is a lot left to learn, and it is not an easy thing to craft laws and policies around features as complex and nebulous as wetlands often seem to be. However, there is real reason for us to take another look at these often neglected areas of our landscape and appreciate the functions and values they add to the landscape. Improving water quality, reducing the impacts of big storm events (flooding, etc), and keeping streams flowing with cool, clean water during the hottest months of the year are just some of the benefits to fish, wildlife and humans alike.

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Wetlands have often served as backgrounds for scary monsters and legends.

The exact mechanisms for providing these functions vary widely from wetland to wetland, but the core of their ability to provide these functions is that wetlands are areas where water has a chance to slow down and hang out for an extended period of time. As a general rule of thumb, the more time water is held in a wetland, the more processes are able to work to clean that water. More time in a wetland means more time for plants and microorganisms to filter some of those pollutants. It also means more time for sediment to settle to the bottom and for water to soak into the ground.

Excess sediment in our water can be very detrimental, as soil particles tend to be really great at latching on to other pollutants and nutrients. Too much of this sediment in our waterways can also have a big impact on fish. These soil particles can trap salmon eggs in the gravel, and can stress fish navigating the stream – imagine one of us trying to go for a walk in the middle of a dust storm. Wetlands essentially act as stepping stones as water moves down through the watershed. Rather than allowing the water to run straight through the system as fast as it can, picking up whatever debris it may and wreaking havoc downstream, wetlands give the water an opportunity to slow down. As water slows down, it loses its ability to move debris, and much of this sediment drops out, resulting in cleaner water downstream.

This slowing of the water is also critical in allowing wetlands to protect against the effects of larger storm events in a watershed. If you were to remove all the wetlands in a watershed, the result would be a much more direct path for water to travel from the top of the watershed to the bottom. This means water is moving faster than it otherwise would be, piling up on itself as it gets to the lower watershed. In other words, it floods.

Wetlands add complexity to the water’s pathway downstream, slowing the water down and spreading the storm’s influx of water throughout the watershed, reducing the flood impact in any one spot. This also benefits us in summer, long after the storm has passed. The current climate trend in the Pacific Northwest is towards warmer, wetter winters, and hotter, drier summers. From a watershed perspective, that translates roughly to too much water in the winter and not enough in the summer.

Wetlands not only protect against the impact of too much water in the winter but keeping the water held higher in the watershed during the wet season allows more of it to soak deep into the groundwater, where it is released more slowly as cooler, cleaner water downstream. As a result, wetlands also help keep our streams flowing with cool, clean water even during hot and dry summers.

Wetlands also provide great habitat for birds and wildlife. The unique soil and vegetation conditions, along with an abundance of decaying plant material, lays the foundation for robust populations of macroinvertebrates, amphibians, birds and mammals. Snags, brush piles, and downed wood — staples of many healthy wetland systems — contribute valuable nutrients and building material to promote the health of these populations, as well.

Wetland Restoration in Practice

Starting this fall, keep your eyes peeled as you drive along Highway 2 between Monroe and Snohomish. The Snohomish Conservation District recently secured grant funding to complete a wetland restoration project at the Monroe Wetland Park, which is owned by the City of Monroe. For the next few years, the District’s Washington Conservation Corps crew will be establishing native, woody vegetation throughout eight acres of wetland and streamside habitat just north of Highway 2 near Lake Tye. Replacing the existing vegetation, primarily invasive reed canary grass and bittersweet nightshade, with a diverse mix of native, woody vegetation will increase shade to the stream and restore healthy wetland hydrology to the site. This will also improve groundwater recharge and reduce flooding in the agriculture-dominated floodplain directly downstream.

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What Can You Do?

If you have a wetland on your property, there are a lot of things you can (and cannot) do to help protect and improve its health and ensure its ability to provide the functions we all depend on.

Plant Native Plants: Native plants can help restore some of the functions of your wetland. Many native plants are adapted to growing in the unique saturated conditions of wetlands in the Pacific Northwest. You can check out SCD’s Wetland Plant List Fact Sheet at http://www.betterground.org/wetland-planting-list/ to get started!

 Keep it Messy: Wetlands are inherently messy. Learning to love the mess can go a long way in ensuring it stays healthy and functional. It’s okay to leave snags, downed wood, and brush piles!

Call for Help: District staff are available to evaluate the wetlands on your property. We can help you develop a plan to restore or improve your wetland and connect you with valuable resources. If you have a project in mind or would like more information, email habitat@snohomishcd.org or call Alex at 425-377-7013. 

Keeping Your Soil Resilient in a Changing Climate

By Carrie Brausieck, Resource Planner

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Our climate is changing. The University of Washington Climate Impact Group (CIG) has done extensive research and modeling on climate patterns in the Pacific Northwest. Based on this research, they have compiled predictions for what our climate will look like in the coming decades. Changes in our climate patterns are predicted to include:

• Warmer winters with low snow packs and early peak stream flows

• Warmer, drier summers with summer stream flows decreasing

• Drier years will be intensified

As our climate trends move towards these new patterns we may begin to experience the effects of these new trends on our landscapes. The possible effects of these different climate patterns are:

• Longer growing seasons with increased demand on low summer water resources

• Possible yield reductions due to heat and/or drought stress

• Crops viable to the region may change

• Possible yield reduction in forage crops

• Lower growth rates and milk production in livestock

While these predictions may seem alarming, there is some good news. By looking to the soil, we can find ways to mitigate the impacts of these trends on our landscapes. Through building health and resiliency into our soils, we can better adapt to a changing climate. 

What is Resilient Soil?

What is healthy, resilient soil and what is its function? Healthy soil is a living substance teaming with a wide diversity of life, from arthropods to fungi to protozoa to small mammals. Soil is the living interface between the geology and the biology of the earth. It serves as a transformative layer converting stone into the biodiversity that the planet sustains.

Some basic characteristics of healthy soil are:

• A soft crumbly structure with clumps and pore spaces (like a sponge)

• Reactive to the environment, warms quickly in spring

• Maintains the capacity to soak up large amounts of water (heavy rains) with little run-off

• Has the capacity to store water during drought periods

• Resists erosion and nutrient loss

• Produces high yields of healthy plant life without large amounts of chemical inputs

Soils, as described above, could go a long way in maintaining our crops or landscapes through extreme weather events and would adapt better to changes in long-term climate patterns.

Building Healthy, Resilient Soil

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There are many ways to nurture health and resiliency in our soils. One of the best models is to manage our soils in the same way that nature manages soils. Undisturbed soils tend to be more resilient to changes in climate than soils that have been cultivated or managed in yards and recreational areas.

As you observe the environment, you begin to see that nature manages soils in the following ways:

• Soil is always covered - bare soil is a rarity

• Polycultures – many species function together

• Reliance on soil organisms to till the soil

• A closed loop of organic input, breakdown, and re-uptake of nutrients (a cycle of fertility)

Armed with the above observations, we can begin to devise management strategies for our own soils that mimic nature to build health and resiliency back into degraded soils, or to maintain the integrity of soils that are already healthy.

The following are ways we can manage our soils for increased soil tilth and productivity:

• Keep soils covered – use multi-species cover crops, dense crop plantings with companion crops, mulch, and residue

• Consider diversity – diversity among plant communities builds symbiotic relationships, creates more complex exchanges of nutrients and natural pest controls, and increases diversity of life within the soil (i.e. the whole system functions better)

• No-till or low-till practices – this can be implemented in large scale cropping systems, or in small scale backyard garden beds

• Build organic matter (cycle of fertility) – allow leaves or lawn clippings to decompose into the soil, add compost or manure, roll cover crops, and/or leave residue to decompose into the soil

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Help for Farms, Pastures, Lawns, and Landscapes

Soil health techniques can be practiced at any scale. Whether you are a large-scale crop producer or you’re trying to maintain a backyard lawn, you can incorporate all of the above techniques into your land- use activities.

Lawns can be diversified with many different grass species as well as legumes and forbs. Cropping systems can be diversified through crop rotations, companion plantings, and cover cropping. There are so many different ways to put soil health techniques into practice.

Focusing on the health and resiliency of our soils will not only create a healthier system overall but will prepare all of our landscapes for changing patterns in the future. For help with keeping your soil healthy, or to request a soil test, please contact Carrie Brausieck at 425-377-7014.

Reforesting the Arney Farm in Oso

Guest Feature by Sarah Arney

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More than 25 years ago, after deciding to build a house in a pasture on my father’s dairy farm, I started planting trees around the site of my future home. When neighbors saw me planting trees, some commented that those farmers who cleared the land 100 years ago were rolling over in their graves, after all their hard work here. Clearing land for hay and critters was the thing to do in those days, here in the Stillaguamish River Valley.

Things have changed

Now, with changes in agriculture and the dairy industry, the thing to do is to plant trees along streams and the river to enhance fish habitat and water quality. 

It was March 2014 when I first learned about the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (or CREP), a government program coordinated in Snohomish County by Snohomish Conservation District. At a public meeting in Oso, I learned the District was offering assistance for planting Northwest native trees and shrubs along 300 feet of my river frontage and on both sides of a creek that crosses my land.

Soon after that public meeting, my brother Bob and I met with a resource planner from the Conservation District and did a walkabout on the property left from Dad’s original Arney Dairy Farm. She said it was perfect for the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.

A Blue Tube and Native Plant Forest is Born

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In November 2015 we signed a contract and received a map showing the areas to be planted and an extensive list of plants to be planted. The list ranged from classic Douglas fir and Western red cedar to willows, birch, cascara, Pacific crabapple and big leaf maple, to name just a few. Shrubbery to in-fill between the bigger trees included red osier dogwood, snowberry, Nootka rose, beaked filbert and too many more to remember. 

The planting was done in March this year by a contractor, Calypso Restoration, and the field was full of blue protectors. It looked a bit like a war memorial cemetery. Now, thanks to the rapidly growing field grass, there’s no sign of blue — until the hay is cut this summer.

It was a long and complicated process, but it finally came together, and we are excited to watch this new riparian forest outgrow the canary grass and blackberries. I don’t believe my father would begrudge our decision to reforest the farm. I’m quite sure he would honor our contribution to the future of this earth. By the way, those trees I planted in 1990 in preparation for building my home? They are now 30 to 40 feet tall!

The next task for the Arney Farm, also funded through CREP, is maintaining the new plantings for five years to make sure plants have a fair chance to survive. Crews and private contractors generally provide this service by mowing and weeding annually. 

-From 2016 Summer Nexus

Eight Tips to Prevent Weeds in Pastures

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

1.     Grow a healthy forage sod. Up to 95 percent of your weed control can come from a thick, vigorous sod that prevents weed establishment and discourages soil erosion. Soil test, fertilize, clip, aerate and irrigate pastures, if possible. Manage livestock grazing and keep animals off wet pastures.

2.     Seed areas around troughs, salt blocks, barnyards, and roadsides. Open soil is an open invitation to weeds. New weeds often show up in these places. Consider seeding these areas annually.

3.     Clean equipment. Brush or hose down equipment from weed-infested pastures before entering new pastures. Monitor cleaning areas for new weeds.

4.     Control weed seeds spread by floods. Weed seeds can float on water. Install seed screens on outlet pipes and control weeds near irrigation ditches.

5.     Quarantine animals new to property or pastures. Animals can deposit weed seeds with their manure and start new infestations. If animals have been grazing a weed-infested pasture, keep livestock in the barnyard for a few days before moving them to a clean pasture. Before spreading manure, compost it to kill weed seeds.

6.     Buy weed-free seed. A pound of purchased seed can contain 400 weed seeds. If you ask to see the detailed seed label (and not just the one on the bag), it will list the weeds present by species. This way, you can “select” weed seeds already on your land and avoid planting seeds of something new.

7.     Buy weed-free hay. Grow your own hay, inspect grass stands prior to harvest, buy high quality hay, or buy from a reliable source. By following these practices, you will bring less weed-contaminated hay to your property.

8.     Cooperate with neighbors in controlling weeds. A neighboring field of weeds gone to seed can invade your property. Or your weed spray may drift and damage the fruit trees on your neighbor’s property. Their problem is your problem and vice versa. 

- From Summer 2016 Nexus

New Rain Barrel Winners

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A lucky Camano Island family won a painted rain barrel as part of a water-conserving technology lesson and Earth Day celebration for the students of Utsalady Elementary. This barrel doesn't have a design but is painted a neutral color. Would you like to paint your rain barrel? Instructions on painting your barrel, installing it, and caring for it over the seasons are found ove here >> [http://snohomishcd.org/rb-care].

Gratitude to our Boeing Rain Barrel Building Volunteers!

We all know that Boeing is in the business of building high-quality planes. As it turns out they are also great rain barrel assemblers! Last Friday, April 15th Boeing partnered with Snohomish Conservation District, Mukilteo Elementary and Boy Scouts to turn a whole truckload of 55-gallon drums into rain barrels. In just over 2.5 hours they assembled 150! These barrels were taken to a public rain barrel sale on Camano Island, where 46 were sold to happy locals.  Those who bought rain barrels will be able to store and re-use roughly 2,530 gallons of water! St. Aidan's Episcopal Church and vicar Fr. Drew supported the sale by providing the venue, helping to promote, and assisting with set up. 

In addition to assembling rain barrels, Boeing Volunteers also laid mulch in the Mukilteo Elementary outdoor classroom and helped hand dig a rain garden. Young Boy Scout leaders, who were pivotal in the creation of the outdoor classroom, and teacher Sue Idso, gave volunteers a tour of the outdoor classroom – pointing out the habitat structures purposely built to provide a haven for urban wildlife while providing memorable outdoor science opportunities for elementary students. This year alone, over 90 classes have taken place in the Mukilteo outdoor classroom.

 All in all, this group of Boeing employees and family members did an incredible job! District Community Engagement Manager, Kate Riley, couldn’t say enough good things about working with Boeing Company.

 “Boeing has been an incredible partner – from their active volunteerism and their commitment to supporting local environmental work, to their desire to address stormwater pollution at their factories by installing rain gardens.”

This year, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Boeing provided $90,000 of funding to support Snohomish Conservation District and partners in implementing key conservation initiatives including rain garden demonstration projects in Edmonds and the regional Better Ground Campaign.  

Monroe-Aldergove Meadows Crew Sighting

Location: Monroe-Aldergove Meadows Subdivision French Creek Watershed Day's

Activity: Leading 275  7th graders, chaperones and teachers in planting trees, placing plant protectors and doing water quality. 

Dates: March 8 & 9 2016

Whidbey Island Crew Sighting

Location: Whidbey Island

Activity: Working with the Whidbey Island Land Trust to remove English Ivy from trees and the surrounding ground in a once logged area along the eastern shore.

Date: February 16, 2016