Florida Stormwater Pond Provides Amazing Communal and Foraging Habitat for Migratory Birds

Stormwater ponds can provide amazing habitat for wildlife.  Over the years I've heard numerous reasons by well-meaning regulatory staff for not planting wetland trees and plants around stormwater ponds.  Arguing stormwater ponds contain toxins and pollutants, Water Management District staff balked at allowing littoral shelf plantings, fearful of attracting birds.

Florida Stormwater ponds planted with cypress along littoral shelves

Being out in the field as often as I am though, it was easy to see that regardless of plantings or no plantings, migratory birds would show up.

Florida Stormwater ponds create an important ecosystem i the Urban Core

The following series of photographs are of a marvelous stormwater pond in St. Augustine planted with cypress and other aquatic plants.  I was totally amazed at the sheer number and variety of birds utilizing the facility for communal and foraging habitat.  

Brown Pelican fishing the Stormwater Pond

I suggest stormwater ponds are going to be visited by migratory and local birds regardless of littoral shelf plantings.  So if the birds are coming, might as well allow littoral plantings and provide much needed habitat within the urban core.

Anhingas, and Wood Ducks utilize the Urban Core water body

Florida Stormwater Ponds provide habitat for Herons with lots of fish

Florida Stormwater Ponds and Wood Ducks

Anhingas are skilled Stormwater Pond fishers

Roseate Spoonbill rests in Florida Stormwater Pond cypress

Florida Stormwater Pond and Canadian Geese

Seeagulls also visit Florida Stormwater Ponds

Florida Stormwater Ponds provide habitat for Marsh Hens and Coots

Wetland Trees in Stormwater Ponds provide roosts for Herons

Robins fill the trees around Stormwater Ponds

Florida Stormwater Canals Provide Much Benefit to Ecology - Keep Herbicides Away!

We have an amazing stormwater canal in our neighborhood, brimming with ecological benefit.  Most people however turn up their noses at the sight of our ditch.

Granted, all stormwater canals are excavated.  Excavated ditches usually are created to drain wonderful wetlands and floodplain areas.  But there is no going back to forests in our well developed neighborhood and our stormwater canal is here to stay.

Florida stormwater Canal, rich in #Biodiversity

The ecological benefits of our Stormwater canal are many.

She provides an incubation sanctuary for the many small tadpoles and amphibians who later feast on the pest insects in our permaculture garden.  If I chose an ideal location to raise a pest control army, the canal would be optimum.

Spring is approaching here in Northeast Florida and each time I walk to the edge of the ditch I am amazed at the amount of biodiversity hosted within the tannin stained waters.

Native wetland plants line the edges and along with grasses and sedges provide effective filtration systems for the rainfall runoff, cleaning the water before the runoff has a chance to reach local estuaries and the ocean.

Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous are scavenged from the water and locked up within plant biomass, sequestering the toxins mankind has spewed into our environment.

The complexity of animal and plant interactions is simply amazing.  The biodiversity is rich.  The food chain is well developed, from the algae eaters to the swallow-tail kites, Elanoides forficatus hovering above.

No, the ditch is not over run with rats, mice, snakes or other vermin.  A balanced ecosystem will remain  in harmony with our human needs.  Our ditch provides pest control for our garden, fresh air for our backyard, wildlife habitat, cleans pollutants from adjacent roads, sequesters carbon and other toxins, attenuates flooding waters, offers many great photography opportunities, creates a barrier between our yard and our neighbors and more!

That is until the City comes to call with their annual herbicide application.

Where the idea of dead everything somehow is beneficial comes from, I don't know.

But sadly, many community's perception of neatness and sanitation lies in a starkly barren stormwater canal, devoid of all life, a mere excavated and mechanical culvert of water flow.

Nature cannot be held down for long though, and life returns each year.

Unfortunately, the herbicide applications simply take all the sequestered nutrients and toxins and release them right back into the waterway.

Harvesting biomass through mowing and leaf litter collection, removal and composting would offer significantly more ecological benefits.  TMDL credits, compost and other benefits could be achieved.  Waterways would become cleaner.

Maybe someday, but probably not in my lifetime.  The herbicide applicator has a job to do.

Florida Forebay Wetland Cleans Stormwater and Provides Landscape

Our Stormscrubber wetland has passed its eighteen month install date anniversary and still providing successful stormwater treatment, storage and landscape credit.

We installed the StormScrubber in May 2009 on the site of an upscale cafe in the Springfield Historic restoration district in Jacksonville, Florida.

The prior to the install, the site had serious flooding and stormwater problems.

The StormScrubber Wetland solved the stormater runoff issue and provided landscape beauty and credit all in  one package.

The site presented several significant issues.  There was the potential for system clogging because of the sandy and silty nature of the soils.  A permeable paver system using historic bricks was installed to direct the stormwater into the wetland system.

The wetland was planted with Florida native species that could tolerate both inundation and drought.

The wetland system incorporates a special self pruning system to keep roots from filling up the infiltration-void storage chamber.


To date the StormScrubber has preformed as expected, cleaning runoff, storing the rainwater underground and using the collected stormwater to irrigate the landscape feature plant species.

The new paradigm in site design is the combination of landscape units with rainwater storage.  Call us today for more information on how Green and Sustainable BMPs can help maximize your project's design efficiency.

StormScrubber 2009

StormScrubber 2010

Typha - Cattails, Stormwater Ponds, Roundup, Nutrients In-Nutrients Out

Killing cattails, Typha latifolia with roundup in a sormwater pond and leaving the plants int he pond to decompose is a sure-fire way of being obvious about not understanding nutrient removal (Nitrogen and Phosphorous) and other pollutants from a stormwater facility.

How often have you seen vast stretches of cattails killed by the action of Roundup's active ingredient - Glyphosate - "GLY-PHO-SATE".

Monsanto has often spoke of the safety of Roundup and I've even seen Roundup representatives drinking the diluted mixture.

Does a wicked job on plants though.

Cattails are a pioneer species and quite persistent in their growth patterns being classified as noxious by many agencies though they are a native species here in Florida.

Cattails are one of the most efficient species at uptaking pollutant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. Typha is also an excellent mechanism for removal of heavy metals and other contaminants from stormwater.

So here in Florida -and elsewhere - by the time Typha is killed back by the frost, Roundup or reaches maturity as a plant, large quantities of pollutants have been removed from stormwater and sequestered in the plants biomass.

It is in this part of the equation where we need to break the cycle of Nutrients In Nutrients Out.

Take roundup, kill the cattails - let them fall back into the pond and all the heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorous, oils and greases and other contaminants are soon released right back into the water.

Roundup use concentrates nutrient and pollutant concentrations in stormwater ponds.

Typha and Algae blooms react the same way to the Nutrients In Nutrients Out equation.

Plants are efficient at removing pollutants and cleaning water.

Yet if the plants are killed and allowed to decay in the pond, then all the pollutants and nutrients are re-released right back into the waterbody.

The Nutrients In Nutrients Out cycle must be broken to finally clean stormwater.

Harvesting Typha and removing the species from stormwater ponds is the best long term answer to nutrient removal.

The cattails can then be composted and, after Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure tests (TCLP) the composted biomass can be used as mulch or nutrient rich fertilizer.

Understanding the Nutrients In Nutrients Out cycle is critical to effective and sustainable control of stormwater pollution.

Copper Sulfate and Glyphosate have their rightful place.

To keep ponds sustainable clean - their must also include a Nutrients Out component.

Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated!

Kevin

Stormwater and Arboriculture - Cypress Landscapes for Stormwater Ponds, Habitat, Traffic and more!

Stormwater Landscaping with Cypress Trees

Stormwater ponds function better with appropriate landscapes such as the cypress trees depicted in the photo to the left.

Many here in Florida argue that stormwater ponds should be free and clear of vegetation.  Some of their arguments include lines of reasoning such as;

• Stormwater ponds are polluted and plants attract wildlife that in turn could be harmed by the polluted water
• However regardless of plants or no plants, wildlife come to stormwater ponds anyway
• Here in Florida woodstorks and sandhill cranes are often seen fishing around stormwater ponds

Importantly, plants around stormwater ponds help clean the stormwater and provide a host of other benefits.

Cypress, Taxodium spp., is especially a good tree to plant around stormwater facilities.

Reasons I choose Cypress as the number one Florida Stormwater species are;

• Cypress is a native Florida plant
• Cypress has a low leaf litter rate - THIS IS IMPORTANT
• other wetland species native to Florida, such as Blackgum, Nyssa spp. contribute enormous amounts of leaf litter to the stormwater pond, rapidly filling up the volume and requiring significant maintenance
• Cypress provides important habitat for wildlife including - 
• Communal habitat, and
• Foraging habitat
• Cypress can be pruned easily for safety
• Refer to the above photo of the stormwater pond adjacent a heavily traveled intersection.
• The lower limbs of the Cypress can be pruned high enough to allow drivers to possess a safe range of view and see automobiles approaching in other directions.
• Cypress tolerates drought - long periods once established
• Cypress tolerates innundation
• Cypress grows well in modular wetlands
• Cypress contributes towards volume recovery - did you know the Florida water management districts allow for recovery efficiencies from evapotranspiration?  See Chapter 40C-42 SJRWMD and others.

All in all - Cypress is the best plant for sustainable stormwater systems in Florida!

Kevin

Wetland and BioSwale Creation in Floodplain Areas

Floodplain compensation based on storage volume typically must be the same for pre-development and post development conditions here in Florida.  That is unless your site is adjacent a tidal area.

Many times these 'dug holes' are simply dry, ugly holes in the ground.

However, by excavating the floodplain compensation area down a little deeper the end result can produce a beautiful, functioning wetland or BioSwale with immense benefit.

Since floodplain compensation credit is given for volumes created above seasonal high groundwater elevations, over excavation by a couple additional feet  ( one meter or so) can produce hydrology necessary for the functioning system.

The BioSwale pictured in the photo is located in central Florida.  It is created in a floodplain compensation area and is approximately two years old.

The beauty of this system is its capacity to clean water with plants and the habitat provided for endemic wildlife.

Yesterday we were reviewing success progress of plant establishment on the site and witnesses Sandhill cranes, deer, raccoons, alligators, fish, snipes, kestrels and other species using the created BioSwale.  Moreover, many of the aquatic plants were flowering.

Next time you design a project with floodplain compensation, consider over-excavating a little and creating a BioSwale.  Feel free to email us with questions.  Kevin.

BioSwale - Sustainable Stormwater

Foating Wetlands Remove Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Gainesville, Florida Stormwater Pond

Pictured below is the  Floating Wetland in Tumblin Creek Park, Gainesville, Florida.  The system is fashioned around a 53mm recycled PPE platform - and contains Florida Native Aquatic plants.

The root mass below the platform cleans water with a variety of mechanisms, including - expansive root system surface area for microbes to digest nutrients, and for the plants themselves to uptake the nutrients and sequester in upper leaf biomass.  The biomass is then harvested annually.

University of Florida scientists are studying the platforms to determine the efficiency of the systems and test results are extremely positive.  Call Kevin for more information today!

Cleaning Oil Out of Florida's Waterways

Photo here is of oil sheen coming into marsh and wetland areas.  The worker has deployed what is commonly referred to as Pom Pom Booms.  The Pom Pom Booms primarily act as containment buffers.  At some point int he future we may be seeing oil up in Florida's fresh water systems, including springs.  We will be exploring how floating wetland systems can possibly absorb and clean oil contained water and keep you up to date on the results.  We use floating wetlands to clean stormwater - how about for cleaning Oil Spills?

Seattle's New Streetside Stormwater Designs

Great article here - click here -  on using roadside swales & wetlands for stormwater treatment. 

Also be sure to check out the design guidelines found on the second page of the article.  Excellent resource! 

Tussocks - Floating Wetlands - Cleaning Waterbodies

Sometimes answers to complicated problems can be very simple. RJ & I were attending another Stormwater/Clean Water Trade show recently. New mechanical devices designed to treat stormwater adorned almost every booth. There were Jellyfish and Hippos (literally) and ground up rubber tires and pumps and valves and everything mechanical and everything expensive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpHHUg59q90

RJ turned to me after I commented on how the need for clean water was driving all kind of mechanical inventions and noted... 'but God has made the best process for removing pollutants - Plants!'

I couldn't agree more. Sometimes we are fixated on long equations and electrically driven motors with pumps and gadgets for removing those pollutants made with the same motors, pumps and gadgets - from our stormwater.

Maybe the simple, cost effective answer lies in Plants. I think RJ has a point.



Check out the video of the floating tussocks RJ and I built for a pond on a golf course in St. Augustine, Florida. The severe cold (low 20's) we had lately bit the canna back a little, but they are growing rapidly, drinking up the fertilizer runoff as quickly as it finds the way off the fairway into the waterbodies.

Simple technology. Use Florida native species - allow the cleansing and removal process to work, harvest the biomass and reuse as compost/mulch somewhere else on site. Cleans the water and saves Florida's cypress trees from being ground into landscape mulch.

Simple. Cost-effective. Why aren't we as a State using these tussocks?

Slow it, Spread it, Sink it (it = stormwater), LID and Green Streets - Click Here

Slow, it, Spread it, Sink it. Stormwater needs to go back into the ground, as most did before development occurred.

Click on the Title here for an attached newsletter from San Mateo, an example of a municipality utilizing green design practice to keep pollutants and nutrients out of the adjoining estuary.

Slow it, Spread it, Sink it.

San Mateo has a great LID Design Manual full of ideas and design drawings. Due to the manual's size, I've divided up the chapters and in some instances the pages and included all into a folder. Click on the link and open each chapter as needed.

Excellent design examples can be found throughout the entire manual. Let me know if you find the information useful - you can email me - ksonger@acfenvironmental.com

Cellular Confinement Systems for Pervious Roadways, Parks, Streets, Parking Lots and Sustainability

Cellular Confinement Systems were refined by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and today offer an option of creating structural, pervious Green Roads, Parking Lots, Fire Access Lanes and more.

The Cellular Confinement System Design Guideline Brochure found at the link to the right (pdf file) provides information on how these systems can be used.

I was fortunate to spend the day recently with Hadas Levin of PRS, a cellular systems manufacturer.

Importantly, cellular confine systems can be used to produce pervious surfaces using the native soil - crushed and recycled asphalt - recycled concrete - fill from the site. In other words, there is usually no need to haul away excavated material - even though the excavated material may have a lower quality.

Furthermore, the system may be used to build tall, vertical living walls with a very small footprint.

Check out the attached design guideline for additional sustainable ideas!

Functioning and Beautiful Wetland Created in an Upland - UF's Teaching Wetland by Dr. Mark Clark

If you haven't had the opportunity to visit the teaching wetland/stormwater pond at UF then be sure to walk the boardwalk through the system next time you are on the UF campus.

The SEEP Wetland is a creation of Dr. Mark Clark's and is truly a work of science and art. Many of you have heard my comments on just how hard it is to create a wetland in an upland area without existing hydrology. Florida's rainfall totals may hit the 50"+ mark every year. However the storms creating 50" of rainfall usually occur with unpredictable timing - sometimes we have several months of intense drought. Without native groundwater, surfacewater or other water supply, created wetlands tend to "dry up" and die...But not at the UF SEEP!

Mark designed the system with three major components, including a shallow forebay catching every little bit of precipitation. And the design is working, growing, cleaning stormwater, providing habitat for wildlife and a sense of place for people.

Perfect for bring back volumetric green to the Urban Core.

Stormwater Brings Beauty - Cypress & Stormwater Treatment

The above Stormwater Pond was constructed and planted in 1996 and is celebrating 13 years of existence. The cypress were about three years old when planted so they are approximately 16 years old now. Cypress was chosen due to a low leaf litter rate (it is one of my favorite trees), its ability to withstand drought and floods, & because Florida's wildlife utilizes the tree for food and shelter.

When we looked at the site initially there were no wetlands or native water sources available - no surface water or groundwater to hydrate a constructed wetland. During design the team integrated a system that allows enough water to be conserved in the pond to allow for wetland plant establishment and provide an anaerobic environment capable of allowing denitrification.

The site here is downtown Tallahassee near the corner of Park Avenue and Magnolia Drive - the City of Tallahassee allowed the developer more site development density in exchange for a created wildlife habitat - the new paradigm in site development - combination of landscape and stormwater.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however I'd say this small cypress wetland provides wonderful landscape beauty along with habitat where habitat is needed and especially clean water! With the new Florida Unified Stormwater Rule coming up soon, maybe more and more of these created wetlands will be built, serving to remove pollutants and nutrients, clean stormwater, provide habitat and a sense of place in the Urban Core.

Atlantis Green City Video Clip - Great Green and Sustainable BMP and Site-Building Design Video

Though the above video is longer, the information contained within on Green Cities and what I call volumetric and vertical green - make it well worth the time taken to view the information.

You can call 800-448-3636 for additional information on all of Atlantis' products.

Living Walls by Atlantis Corp of Australia - Vertical Green

Here is an interesting video of Atlantis Water Management System's Living Wall Concept. The design is solid, especially as the frame is made from 95% Post-Consumer recycled material - good LEED Compliant stats.

There are a few options I'd recommend - such as setting the living wall frame off from the stucco wall by at least 4 - 6 inches and seal any penetrations for anchors with a good low VOC sealant. Add a moisture/water barrier such as a HDPE sheet to the back of the vegetated frame.

Irrigation concept is good too, however I'd certainly add the irrigation water capture and recycling option - or connect directly to the gutter downspout.

The extra width will serve to provide stability - especially on free standing walls.

Any ideas how they could be used to treat stormwater? Remember - the more vertical green we restore to the Urban Core - the more we treat stormwater, provide wildlife habitat and create a sense of place. In addition - living walls are the missing links from horizontal green up to green and vegetated roofs. Call ACF Environmental if you are interested in the Living Wall by Atlantis concepts...

Kevin

This is a Stormwater Pond...Can you Tell?

Combining Stormwater, Landscape and other site design features is the approach to take when maximizing site usefulness. The stormwater volume storage in the picture above is located under the white stone. Water loving plants are grown in special containers that keep roots out of the stormwater system but allow the plants to drink up the stormwater. Did you know that Florida's water management districts allow for evapotranspiration to be considered as part of volume recovery calculations? More importantly - the site takes advantage of combining required functions - stormwater and landscape into one cost effective and functional unit. And the system is rated for H20 loading so it is structural! The new paradigm in site design is Low Impact Development!

Volumetric Green in the Urban Core is the Answer! - Beauty - Clean Water & Habitat!

Answer to what you ask? I'd reply - just about everything...As a youngster growing up in tropical South Florida, I'd spend weekends with my Grandpa who lived among the San Blas Indians while building radio towers for Pan American. He would tell me about how much they would rely on plants for food, fiber and medicine. And I think of how our Florida shores appeared to the first European explorers as they landed on our beaches - volumetric green! - A far cry from today's urban sprawled horizontal green. However, by bringing back volumetric green to the Urban Core we can immediately see cost-effective results in treating stormwater, providing wildlife with habitat, developing natural integrated pest management systems, provided a much needed sense of place to our cities' inhabitants, allow for food growing on a local and permaculture type basis, and much more. When studying the vertical green projects we've monitored over the years I am never ceased to be amazed at how much stormwater the plants drink. Critters requiring vertical green above four feet thrive because they can escape predators. As the ecosystem rebuilds, the Florida anoles and treefrogs eat ants, roaches, mosquitoes and termites - the perfect non-toxic, non-polluting via runoff pest management system. Vertical green allows to reach back and reconnect with our ancestors and their close relationship to volumetric green. Think about the holly wreaths we hang all over our walls this time of the year. Yes, volumetric green is the answer.

Florida Stormwater Association Conference this week in Tampa!

Check out the three new floating wetland info diagrams available on this blog to the right under the FSA Floating Wetland Info Diagram links. The FSA conference looks to be packed full of information and opportunity. Hope to see you there.

Federal Judge Rules EPA can step in and set Florida's water quality standards...

On November 16th, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said he will approve a legal settlement calling for the federal government to set water quality standards for nutrients (pollutants) in Florida .

The State of Florida already restricts nitrogen and phosphorus discharges however environmental groups say the state is not doing enough.

To see the full consent decree click here.

To view the Google results of articles and blogs discussing the issue and impacts to various components of Florida's environment and economy, click here.