Project 1: Field Experience
Geography 235—Conservation of Natural Resources
Fall 2015
By Lauren McElroy
1. On Saturday September 19 at 9am, I went to the New Garden Park in Landenberg, Pennsylvania. We went to help Shane Morgan, management plan coordinator of White Clay Wild and Scenic River Program, in the planting a new riparian buffer. During this planting, we helped to enhance existing wetland areas with native plants to provide better wildlife habitat.
Currently, the land along Lamburn Run is managed as open lawn and routinely mowed up to the stream bank. Mown turf grass lowers stream habitat by offering little to no wildlife value. Furthermore, it has very little root mass to help hold banks together during heavy floods thus adding to poor water quality and stream habitat.
This year New Garden Township, along with the help of the White Clay Watershed Association, will install plants and trees along Lamborn Run, a small stream running through New Garden Community Park that does not meet
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state water quality criteria. 2.
In creating this new riparian buffer, we spread native plants throughout this area and we used small shovels to dig deep holes to put the plants in. We put the roots deep into the ground to encourage growth, to help to better hold the banks together, and to protect surrounding plants. This new riparian buffer will help to expand the wildlife and stream environment in the park.
3. I learned through this field experience that parks play an important role in managing water in a community. They offer chances to showcase good land use practices by offering an easy, low cost way to involve local individuals and demonstrate the value of green spaces.
I learned that riparian buffers, the land next to a stream or water body composed of community of plants such as grasses, flowers, shrubs, and trees, provide several environmental and recreational benefits. Particularly, they buffer valuable aquatic resources from the possible negative influences of human use of adjacent
land. I now know that buffers have been shown to increase groundwater infiltration, offer cooler water to support cold water fisheries and other stream life, decrease stream bank erosion, filter sediments and pollutants regularly found in runoff, provide floodwater storage, and improve wildlife and stream habitat. They also deliver enriched recreational opportunities for trail users and children to view and explore nature. This gives opportunities to offer a broader understanding and acceptance of what are the best storm water management practices such as the use of riparian buffers and mow zones along streambeds. I understand today that a riparian buffer is not a quick fix, it is a long-term venture in a living system that takes time to grow. It needs proper management to ensure its effectiveness, but with patience it can provide an ongoing and cost effective enhancement to stream habitat and water quality for generations. I genuinely enjoyed planting this riparian buffer, with the minor detail of many big spiders that I dislike; I realize how much I’ve made a difference. I know it is very important for people to get involved in their local environment and the surrounding world we live in because we will need it for our future. I hope that in the future I can do something in my career that might help to maintain our environment my helping local parks such as New Garden Park. I hope to help our environment and surrounding areas by keeping them looking naturally beautiful by protecting them and revitalizing them.
John Adams Dam was built on another Genesee River tributary to form a recreational pond affecting 43.78 miles of river (Fish, n.d.). There is a small, unnamed barrier affecting 3.16 miles of Genesee River tributary in the center of the park. I assume that it had been used during the building of walkways or roads in the park; however, there is no documentation on the dam’s purpose.
Conservation banking was modeled after the U.S. wetland mitigation banking system and the two programs share many similarities. However, unlike the wetland mitigation system, conservation offsets do not have a stated ‘no net loss’ goal, but instead have a species recovery goal. Both conservation and wetlands mitigation banks are privately or publicly owned lands which are protected and managed for its ecological value. By doing this, the bank sponsor generates habitat or wetland or stream credits to sell to developers or transportation departments who need to offset their impacts and comply with the legal requirements for the permitting of development or roadway projects. Both types of banks offer benefits to both the landowner that owns the natural resource and the developer that needs to purchase the credits. The landowner can take portions of their property that may have been considered unusable and turn it into an asset. The developer can streamline their permitting process by purchasing credits instead of implementing a mitigation plan themselves.
The Deep Creek Conservation Park was full of wildlife and plants. Many people in the group saw lots of kangaroos and bird species that live in the area (See figure 8). We saw a few animal tracks on the camp as well which shows that the area is full of wildlife. While there the group also noticed some human impacts such as paths, long drops or other sustainable practices that humans have made to make the environment more sustainable in the long run. Although these practices were effective many small improvements could be made such as teaching people who use the park correct usage such as not feeding the animals. Other improvements that could be made could be things such as putting lights in the toilets so people can see or making paths easier to walk on.
Everson, Julie, and Elinor Petersen. "Blue Springs Cemetery Tree Recovery Project. "Letter to Grant Foundation.Summer 1997. MS. Blue Springs, Nebraska.
There is no better feeling in this world than to be outdoors with nature, especially when there are numerous activities to dabble in. Often times people take for granted the sentimental value that they can experience by simply walking through a park. God created the Earth to be beautiful and peaceful, and people need to keep it that way. I have always shared a love of the outdoors with my dad and my brother. We have gone on numerous camping, hiking, fishing, and star-gazing trips ever since I can remember. It was no surprise to me when my dad decided to buy a lake house on Hyco Lake, right outside of Roxboro. We got a really good deal on the house, so my dad decided that Hyco Lake was the perfect spot.
“Aside from its diverse population of mostly introduced crops, the Monticello garden was American in its size and scope, experimental character, and expansive visual sweep. 600,000 cubic feet of Piedmont red clay was moved with a cart and mule to create the "hanging garden," an...
Time and time again it has been seen that human interaction with his/her environment and it’s ecosystems has shown to be increasingly arrogant and self-serving. These endless accounts are proven by the amount of important biological diversity that is being lost to the surrounding environment due to these threats of human development and population growth. There are two forms of these losses of diversity by human hand: direct and indirect. Direct losses would be the destruction of an area needed for human requirements be it social or economical. Examples of these losses would be housing, agriculture, and others. Indirect losses would be those caused by the destruction of an area also needed for the same requirements but the area’s commodities which are valued, water, food, land in general, is needed elsewhere. These losses are few in number compared with those of direct losses yet they are of the greatest importance. They are important because they involve the removal of resources of an area in which other inhabitants are dependent upon. A great example of this regrettable indirect expansion is the loss of the rich habitat of the area known as Owens Valley.
This pristine environment also provided habitat for great diversity of plants and wildlife. Hundreds of species of native plants thrived in forest, marsh, and meadow. But now, in scarcely a century, an equilibrium that endured for thousands of years is rapidly being lost due to environmental degredation and resource values are steadily deteriorating because of human activities. While there is an appearent lose of wildlife and environment that exists in The Lake Tahoe Basin, there is also an insurgance of environmental conservation that has become increasingly powerful in the attempt at stopping these adverse affects on the environment from happening in the hope that the beauty of Lake Tahoe will continue to exist for generations and generations more.
For each stream reach four cross sections were also sampled. At each cross section the samplers performed a heel to toe test to check the consistency of the streams substrate. This test is performed by walking heel to toe accros the creek and picking up everything under the samplers toes. The results of the substrate were averaged by using a code silt=1, sand=2, gravel=3, cobble=4, and boulder=5. The samplers measured the width of the creek and the ordinary high water mark (OHWM). The samplers determined the amount of shade on the creek at each cross section.
From the years, 1987 to 1991, the West Philadelphia Landscape project was part of collective landscape plan which was established as a “greening” project for the West Philadelphia community. A large team of teachers and students from the University of Philadelphia developed a database that used digital maps of the area neighborhoods as well as designed proposals that would allow the project to reuse vacant land in the Mill Creek area. They used the maps they created to design and strategically place organic gardens all around the Mill Creek neighborhood. These gardens helped replace the vacant landscapes with lush green and vibrants flowers. Others used the lots as a means to create community organic gardens, which allowed residents of the community to come and pick fresh produce free of charge.
...he preservation of these precious ecosystems so that future generations can appreciate the serenity and value of the wetlands.
Riparian areas are the areas that surround rivers, streams, lakes, etc. The word “ripa” is Latin for bank. They are the transition zone between aquatic and on land ecosystems. It wasn’t until recently that riparian areas have been viewed as important places, rather than ‘sacrifice’ areas that could be given up for livestock and crops. They take up a small part of our earth, but they are vital to ecosystems and to the water they surround. The roles of riparian areas are rather simple, but they are extremely important to vegetation, wildlife, water, and us.
Centuries ago, Earth was covered in forests. “…The whole country, full of woods and thickets...” (Bradford) was the average for settlers in the 1800s. They had grown accustomed to the full lush trees. Even in the 1900s there were the “…same beautiful trees…” (Fuller) and nature was a sight to see as people relished “passing through one of the fine, park-like woods, almost clear from underbrush and carpeted with thick grasses and flowers” (Fuller). However, as time has passed the ecosystem has changed. No longer are there “laurel, viburnum [a type of tree] and alder, great ferns…” (Carson).
A landscaping plan is a must practical design that flows. The choice of plants can offer beautiful displays throughout the growing season, research each plant and discover how what it takes to have a success garden. I hav...
clothing needed to be marked down and I was told how to use the system