Wetland and Watershed Seminar at Wolf Road Prairie
Presenters/Opening Comments
Q and A
Plant Propagation and Transplanting Demonstration
Wolf Road Prairie and Buffer Restoration Field Trip
Wrap Up Session
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Presenters 
Jack Pizzo Owner, Pizzo & Associates Ecological Restoration throughout the Midwest Comments Regardless of where you are on the earth’s surface, you stand in a watershed. Rain that falls on the land under your feet is on a cyclic journey from the sky to the soil and back again. It is with that understanding that we plan for water in our communities and begin to think of it as an asset -- not a liability. Historically, water fell to the earth and was cycled into the ground or through the streams and rivers into the oceans -- then evaporating and becoming rain again. In the past, rainfall recharged our groundwater through percolation. The rainfall and groundwater supported a diversity of plants and animals, including man. The ecosystems were vast and interconnected. Now we quickly shuttle the water off of the land and pavement with elevated temperature and laden with silt and pollutants. We have fragmented our ecosystems, thereby breaking the interconnections that supported the diversity. We have also transformed native landscapes into homes and parking lots. Do not despair, all hope is not lost. Although glaciers have wiped this area clean several times, life has rebounded. The most recent glacial period retreated 12,000 -14,000 years ago, and a lush grassland formed in its wake. Our field is restoration ecology. We restore function to degraded systems. Restoration of low wetlands to high dry hill prairies has function in our altered watersheds. We all have the ability to restore function to degraded landscapes. As architects, engineers, planners and landscape architects, we introduced green ideas that work with the environment and are cost effective. An example of this is the planting of native grasses and flowers in place of lawn in low to no-use areas. The costs are about equal at installation and during the first few years. The savings come when the native system needs management only a few times per year, versus the weekly mowing of lawn. The savings can be $100,000 per acre over 20 years. Other examples are porous paving in place of asphalt, vegetated filter strips in parking lots instead of raised islands, removal of invasive species in our remnant habitat to restore function and naturally vegetated shorelines to control erosion instead of rip rap. If we all do our part, we can restore function to our ailing ecosystems and start enjoying cleaner air and water and a diversity of flowers, birds and butterflies Dr. Darrel Murray Jeff Swano return to main page, Save the Prairie Society |