 Marsh Pit If you drive through town you can’t miss 100 Mile Marsh. It’s on your left going north and on your right going south. From the road it appears as a sheet of water surrounded by reeds with dark blobby waterfowl sprinkled liberally over its surface. If you stop and walk around it – yes, there is a trail – it comes alive with the sound and movement of wildlife. It may lack the serenity of some isolated bodies of water but many species of bird and animal life still want to live there. Deer are often found near the marsh and an elusive fox makes the rounds. I’ve even been surprised by a moose that came down to stand in the cattail margin. In past years beaver lived there, and more recently Muskrat are staples. Songbirds dwelling in riparian areas, and waterfowl seeking places to nest, all gravitate to the marsh. Eagles, Harriers, and a number of small Hawks are often drawn to the marsh hoping for a quick bite. As much as it is a place for nature, the marsh is also an attraction for people wanting to see nature. A trail between the high school and the arena is well trod by students moving between the two institutions. People walking dogs drive to the rodeo grounds and take their animals around the west side of the facilities. Lunch time sees a number of cars around the marsh perimeter as people seek a getaway spot to eat, read, and think. The occasional impromptu shelter is found around the marsh when those needing temporary accommodation take refuge at the refuge. Generally speaking, the marsh is a busy place and it is not surprising that when changes take place, people notice. And this past summer there was a lot to notice. For a while there has been a plan to create a stop-light controlled intersection at the junction of Highway 97 and Horse Lake Road - an area immediately southeast of the marsh. As storm water copiously flows down the slope during storm events, and putting in more blacktop would increase the amount of flowing water, part of the highway change includes building an engineered settlement pond. Contaminated soil on part of the proposed controlled intersection is holding up construction so this year the Department of Highways decided they would concentrate on building the settlement structure. In order to create the structure they needed to drain the marsh and summer seemed like the best time to proceed. The problem with draining the marsh in summer, however, is that the marsh is a nursery for hundreds of waterfowl. A meeting was held and it was decided that the Ducks Unlimited representative would ascertain a suitable and safe timetable for marsh draining to proceed. Representatives from the high school hoped the work could be completed in summer because they feared that rerouting the noon-hour rush of students across the highway away from their usual route past the marsh, might cause traffic chaos. Unfortunately, for some, the construction timetable was all in the hands, or webbed feet, of a bunch of fluffy ducklings. The last marsh ducklings to hatch were those from half a dozen Lesser Scaup females, a duck that in recent years is on the decline in many areas. Whatever the reason for their drop in numbers elsewhere, Lesser Scaup are doing well at 100 Mile Marsh. Through knowing the date of the last hatching ducklings, the Ducks Unlimited biologist was able to extrapolate a ‘can fly date’ for the ducks. It looked as though draining could begin by September the first. I happened to be house-sitting during August and on my scheduled trips to town I scanned the marsh and often thought of the impending lowering of the water. You can imagine my surprise when, long before September 1st, I saw a piece of machinery over by the weir. I went to investigate and found that the stop logs were removed and the marsh had already dropped lower than the control structure thus the need for a person manning a chugging diesel pump. I was a bit concerned about this early draining but soon learned that the go-ahead had been given and nothing untoward was afoot. One glance at the surface of the marsh showed underwater vegetation constricting most of the open water. I hoped the ducklings were well on their way to maturity. Water pumping at the marsh is now finished and work continues apace on the settlement pond. Several bucket machines have torn a sizeable hole in the ground, dark earth has been trucked east of town, and yesterday rip-rapping (lining of the pond with broken rock) was underway. Many brown blobs - waterfowl - can still be seen negotiating the floating vegetation on the marsh surface. The disturbance of wildlife seems to be part of our existence these days, but when the natural world finds itself adjacent to the human world, disturbances are continuous. People who have asked me about the ongoing marsh construction have taken what I’ve said and concluded that what is being built is a good thing. I suppose it is. The marsh itself is a filtration pond for storm water so now we have a settlement pond attached to a filtration pond. My fear is not that the marsh might become contaminated; I’ve already accepted that it is contaminated. My fear is that over the course of time the marsh water supply will undergo so many periphery changes that the temperature of the water will raise, and then the marsh will become a stinking algae slough. As long as the marsh puts on the face of a relatively smell-free body of water I think it will be welcome, but if the marsh becomes odiferous, I wonder about its future. This summer logging activity on the slopes above 99 Mile hill bared an area all the way up to the railroad tracks and perhaps a little beyond. I can’t help but wonder how that action, along with the clear-cutting behind the Sr. High School will change the water flowing into the marsh, given that most of the water in the marsh comes from the clear-cut areas. I hope the marsh can find some secret strength to draw upon and minister to itself. I also hope that standing downwind will always be a refreshing experience. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
