Wetlands Q & A
Developing succesful environmental projects requires detailed research into community, capacity, native specimens, and partnership opportunities. To further knowledge of these apsects, I asked a person in the United States whose experience in wetands is extensive.
Below are my questions and A. Baldwin's responses. (Image at right is the top of the Sauzal at Parque Solai, Salto source: turista_en_salto).
A. Baldwin, Professor of Wetland Ecology, University of Maryland Publications
Jensen: Are you experienced with government entities or nonprofits putting land into conservatorship? If so, is there an online source explaining how that works? I realize that the process may be different in UY, but that would help my understanding for dialog with officials here.
Baldwin: Around the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland here, there are several land, conservancy organizations that work with farmers and other groups to help conserve land. I have not personally been involved in it. Here is an example of one:
Eastern Shore Land Conservancy
Photos below are of watershed sites in Salto, Uruguay.
Jensen: Do you know any wetlands projects that incorporate solar energy onsite? If so, online source?
Baldwin: There is a general movement here "agrivoltaics" to set up solar panels in farming operations. One of those applications that I've seen in Massachusetts is setting up solar panels in cranberry bogs, many of which were formerly natural wetlands have been converted to producing cranberries. They're not really very natural systems. But here is an example of one that I found.
Unversity of Massachisetts, Agriculture
https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/clean-energy/research-initiatives/agrivoltaics/dual-use-solar-pv-cranberry-production
Jensen: Abot the arroyo... it is very deep and infested with invasive plants. The city dredges it once in a while due to sediment buildup. Are you familiar with situations like that? Any advice on simplifying that maintenance? (Plants along edges, terracing sides and planting specimens to block sediment for example).
Baldwin: We've had a lot of these situations around the Chesapeake Bay due to farming right up to the edge of streams and rivers. There's a recognition that it's important to reestablish "riparian buffers", which can be natural forest plantings, or herbaceous plantings of dense vegetation growth. To cut down on invasives in the Arroyo, planting trees that will eventually shade out the stream will reduce invasion by shorter invasive plants. However, you should look at natural arroyos in the region as a reference to see what species are there, and if there are even naturally occurring forests that grow along arroyos. The other thing is the sediment load that they need to dredge out. If you can cut down on sediment, enter it by planting grassy buffers along farm fields or around sources of that sentiment or put in stormwater management ponds to capture the runoff and let the sentiment settle out, that would save them money in the long run because they wouldn't have to dredge it out as often.
Here are a couple of sites:
Riparian forested buffers
Vegetated Filter Strips
https://mda.maryland.gov/resource_conservation/Pages/conservation-buffer-initiative.aspx
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