Creating Shallow Water Wetlands

In the spring of 2007 a project was undertaken to build a shallow water wetland in a courtyard of Valley Forge High School, Parma Hts, Ohio. Looking back at my time spent working on this project, it is an amazing success. The school is using this wetland as a working lab for the biology, art and chemistry students. It really is true that if you build it they will come. There is never a day that we are not amazed by the activities of this man-made wetland. Check out the link to my website for this wetland and make sure you look at all the pages right of the home page. I was told many times that it was impossible to make this happen but as you will see in my website nothing is impossible if you really want it to happen. But of course, it is all up to you.

35 truck loads of hand dug clay was wheelbarrowed through the hallways and dumped in the front of the school. A total of 125 students, teachers , administrators and alumni worked to make this project a great success. It is planted with native pants and we will work to improve it as we go. The wetland has since been register with the National Wildlife Federation.

"Flash floods have increased in urban area over the last 20 years. This is in part by the loss of wetlands from Northeast Ohio and the urban sprawl that has occured leaving much of the land covered in concrete and putting the bulk of runoff in the sewers which quickly dump into streams and then major rivers.

This is a one of a kind project design of a wetland that will also be a nature center. The students will design a way to divert rain water from the school roof to the wetland, dig the wetland to specific standards for sustaining life, remove non-native species of plants and replace with native ones, stock wetland with wildlife, create learning posts and guide brochures, design a website, design and conduct tours for visitors, design hands-on experiments easily performed by students and grade appropriate according to state content standards.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES INCLUDE

. Working with adults and organizations

. Stewardship toward the wetland

. Knowledge of wetland ecosystem

. Organism identification

. Invasive species and management

. Water quality and water cycles through the seasons

. Need for wetlands to manage flooding

PLANTS INCLUDE: INSECTS INCLUDE: ANIMALS INCLUDE:

Nodding wild onion prairie Odantes (Dragon flies) Amphibians

Marsh milkweed Blue dasher Green frogs

Sky blue aster Eastern pondhawk Toads

New England aster butter Familiar bluet Reptiles/snapping turtle

Marigold wild senna Skimming bluet Sparrows

Purple coneflower prairie Common whitetail Finches

Showy sunflower prairie Widow skimmer Cardinals

Wild yellow iris Twelve-spotted skimmer Blue jays

Dense blazing star Black saddlebags Chickadees

Giant blue lobelia Common baskettail Tufted tit-mouse

Common mountain mint Dot-tailed whiteface Blue heron

Royal catchfly Eastern amberwing Green heron

Stiff goldenrod big bluestem Ruby meadow hawk Mallard ducks

Culvers root American rubyspot Canadian geese

Smooth Ironweed Violet dancer

Cup plant

At Valley Forge, we have created a living land lab to educate students about eleviating the flash floods around urban areas, wetland management, native vs. non-native organisms, classification of organisms, pollution, recycling, food webs, and populations." ( from Wetland pamphlet compiled at Valley Forge Highschool for tour of the Friends of Big Creek organization, 2009)"

This information was compiled by Jon Komar a biology teacher at Valley Forge HS and also Jim Wohl who is a Backyard Habitat Steward of the National Wildlife Federation and steering committee member of Friend of Big Creek Watershed.