Iowa lakes receive aquatic plantings
Volunteers plant cattails, bulrushes in Dickinson lakesBy Greg Drees - EDN Correspondent
CENTER LAKE - They came from all walks of life, volunteers with the single-minded purpose of protecting the lakes. And as they labored in the moist soils and shallow waters of six lakes in Dickinson County on Saturday, the enlisters embarked on a restoration project that gives a whole new meaning to "green" volunteerism.
Working with Clean Water Alliance coordinator John Wills - who works for the Dickinson County Soil & Water Conservation District - about 70 volunteers planted native vegetation buffers along the water's edge and in aquatic shallows, part of the organization's "Let's Turn the Lakes Green" campaign.
"These stands of aquatic vegetation are critical to the long-term health of lake environments," said Wills, who along with urban conservationist Steve Anderson collected the seeds for the plantings from local habitats last fall. "With this project, we are reintroducing the native cattails, bulrushes and other stands of aquatic vegetation that existed in our lakes pre-development," Wills added.
Spencer Herbert of Lake Park, toiling knee-deep in the water on the western shore of Center Lake, said the experience was about giving back. "Our water here is something we need to protect," Herbert said. "This is a good way to get people involved and raise awareness about restoring what was once naturally here."
Herbert, his father Jared, and others were planting fiber blankets of morning blazing star, sedges, little bluestem and other natives in the moist soils, and 12-inch coconut fiber mat logs of bulrushes into the shallow water. Holes were drilled into the logs at 6-inch intervals, into which were plugged bulrushes and sedges, in hopes of rejuvenating the native aquatic plants that once flourished there.
The coconut fiber logs, which were staked into place in the shallows, will aid in the establishment of the bulrushes. Within six weeks the root structure of the plants will grow through the logs, and by the end of summer the roots will be anchored into the lakebed.
Wills said 2,200 feet of shoreline were planted to native emergent, submerged and moist soil plants at the six sites on Saturday. Personnel from the Department of Natural Resources and the Dickinson County Soil and Water Conservation District contributed about 800 hours of volunteerism to the project, Wills said.
The $80,000 project was funded through the Dickinson County Water Quality Commission, an entity created through a 28E agreement between the county and its 10 municipalities that grants $200,000 annually in clean water projects. Since its inception in 2001, the DCWQC has matched every dollar of its pool funds with $17 in federal, state and local match money, translating into millions of dollars of clean water projects on the Dickinson County landscape.
