North Jubilee Wetland: What's Going On?
By Rossland Telegraph
With materials from Rachael Roussin and Eva Cameron
This is the beginning of the first spring season since volunteers placed plantings for the North Jubilee Park wetland last fall. Those plantings have not had time to become well established or to grow; they are just beginning to emerge from their first winter’s frost and burden of snow. The soil is saturated, and the start of the spring freshet has filled the ponds of the natural wetland park to overflowing. Some of the plants are just beginning to show.
Please don’t kill the baby plants
To help the plants survive and become established, wetland supporters are asking that people please refrain from walking near the ponds, to avoid trampling the tender young plants and compacting the soil. Let them grow and help the wetland become the beautiful place it has the potential to be. The spring season is a time to welcome new life — not to kill it in its infancy.
A collaborative effort
The North Jubilee Wetland is a collaborative project of the City of Rossland and the Rossland Society for Environmental Action (RSEA). The work of constructing the wetland was funded by grants obtained through RSEA, and included many volunteer hours. Volunteers are still donating time and effort, and the City will provide basic maintenance, which is expected to cost less than attempting to mow the unsuccessfullly drained, boggy field that is now being restored as a wetland.
The many benefits of wetlands are gradually becoming recognized. Before its supporters started this project, they inititated a thorough public consultation. The majority of the community, including our schools, supported this wetland restoration — and its establishment is an ongoing process just beginning at this point. It will continue to develop and improve over time.
Overflow
Funding from the original grants is allocated to connecting the wetland’s overlow to the City’s storm-water drain system, and that connection is planned to be installed permanently this summer.
Mosquitoes?
The North Jubilee Wetland includes a mosquito monitoring and management plan which is being provided by Morrow BioScience Limited. The plan inlcudes monthly monitoring and bio-friendly treatment if mosquitoes are present.
Safety
The wetland ponds are gradually sloped, and are no more than 70 centimeters deep in the deepest portion. Some of the vegetation planted around the ponds is intended to grow into a natural barrier.
The professional wetland designer, Tom Biebighauser, who designed the North Jubilee wetland, has also designed and established dozens of other wetlands on or near school properties for educational purposes. For photos and more information, click this link.
What’s Next?
The next phases of the wetland development planning will see fencing, landscaping, pathways, a footbridge and some boardwalk so the public can enjoy the wetland close up, and schoolchildren can have a dry pathway to the schoolgrounds.
The wetland restoration will become a more beautiful and interesting place than the former waterlogged field. It will provide educational opportunities for our schoolchildren and safer habitat for more creatures; and it will do these things faster and will cost less to achieve if residents repect the area and help, rather than hinder, the growth of new life in the wetland area.
