04 Aug Harrop Wetland Project Update
On Sunday, August 1st, the FoKLSS team along with some Harrop community members joined Tom Biebighauser, Wetland Designer from Kentucky and Norm Allard, Wetland Restoration Project Manager from the Yaqan Nukiy Band in Creston, to assess the status of the Harrop Wetland.
The purpose of this assessment was to determine how the already-restored wetlands were functioning, and discuss conducting needed maintenance on the Harrop Wetland. We did this by taking elevation readings across the site, measuring how deep we would need to dig the spillway to allow water to come in at lake levels as low as what we saw this year, took notes on groundwater depth from a hole we dug and by marking the wetland perimeter.
We discussed thoroughly with the community what our goals are and how we could achieve those goals. We came up with a rough plan for restoration to naturalize the wetlands, create more pools (some sustained by surface water and some sustained by groundwater) and increase water retention, mapped out the wetland perimeter, and looked at two potential future restoration sites on an adjacent landowners property.
With all of this data, Tom will be developing a site prescription to diversify and naturalize the wetland while increasing water retention to breeding wetland toad and other wetland dwellers. Once Tom’s site prescription has been created, we will decide the best course of action moving forward.
Thanks to our supporters
