Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8, MAY 10, 2010, THE ISLANDER
From the
Ground Up©|of
By Dr. Don Gardner ANR Agent,
UGA Cooperative Extension
Sponsored by
Tait Feed and Seed
6105 New Jesup Highway, Brunswick
Marsh Restoration - Why we need it
There are a lot of amazing things
going on in Glynn County, and some of
them happen in places and by people
you might not suspect.
For instance, if I told you there was
cutting-edge novel research being done
on marsh hydrology and hydrodynam
ics right here in Glynn County you
would probably expect the project to be
led by Sapelo Island National Estua
rine Research Reserve (SINERR), or
UGA’s Marine Extension Service on
Bay Street, or the UGA’s Odum School
of Ecology, or Georgia Southern Uni
versity, or a professor at the College of
Coastal Georgia.
But this project is being led by a
couple guys right here in Glynn County
who do remarkable things every day
right under your nose.
Now why should you care about
something as esoteric as marsh hydrol
ogy? Tax dollars and public health.
Have I gotten your attention?
All along the east coast of the U.S.
mosquito-borne diseases have been
and will continue to be a challenge to
public health officials. Yellow fever
once wiped out eleven percent of the
population of Savannah.
Today Yellow Fever and Malaria
are diseases we hear about happening
somewhere else, like in a third world
country. What made it that way and
what keeps it that way here is the con
stant, year round work of public health
and mosquito control professionals.
Those are public service positions paid
for by your tax dollars.
Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE)
is a mosquito-bome disease that will
usually kill any unvaccinated horse
that contracts the virus. We lose an
average of five horses in Georgia every
year to this disease.
Last year Georgia lost over 40 hors
es to EEE and two dogs to West Nile
Virus. The details on county-by-county
disease occurrences are linked through
the Georgia Mosquito Control Associa
tion (http://www.gamosquito.org/)
We have about a thousand horses in
Glynn County. A lot of them are vac
cinated, but quite a few are not. The
equine industry is Georgia’s second
most valuable agricultural commodity,
second only to poultry. As much as we
love horses, we are not spraying mos
quitoes just because of horses. People
can also contract EEE from the same
mosquitoes that bite horses. Horses
are an indicator species for us, like a
canary in a coal mine. If the horses
start contracting EEE it indicates a
threat to your health.
Keep the mosquito repellent on hand
and USE IT!!! So, while malaria and
yellow fever may not be the scourge
they once were, there is more to worry
about that the irritation of mosquito
bites.
So what does this have to do with
marshes? Well if the marshes are
healthy, not much. Healthy marshes
have water moving in and out of them
twice a day. Mosquitoes need stagnant
or ponding water that sits for seven
days or more in order to breed.
If you think we get a lot of mosqui
toes out of water trapped in discarded
tires and untended bird baths and
flower pots, we do.
But you can take care of those issues
in your yard with proven mosquito con
trol products found at Tait's and other
garden supply stores.
After Katrina hit Louisiana, aban
doned swimming pools were a real
mosquito breeding problem. But you
have not seen mosquitoes until you
have seen a ball of a billion mosquito
larvae stretching like an oil slick fifty
feet long across one of our degraded
marshes.
The problem starts when we build
causeways, roads, rice dikes, bike and
hiking trails and the like across marsh
es and interfere with water getting into
and out of the marsh. Or dump dredge
spoils or excess roadway fill in them
and mess up the drainage.
Those marshes no longer fill and
drain like they should and mosquitoes
set up shop. Glynn County spends
$40,000 to $80,000 annually control
ling mosquitoes generated by these
degraded marshes, depending upon
the weather.
We all wish that money could have
been saved or spent on other things,
but if people are going to live here,
controlling the mosquitoes is a prereq
uisite to any other economic activity.
That is not hyperbole. Close up shop
for the Mosquito Control operations
in Georgia’s coastal counties and you
will be able to hear the property values
drop and businesses close. The exodus
will make Hurricane Floyd envious.
So why did “they” let some of our
marshes get into this state? Because
nobody knew how to prevent it! It is
hard to believe, but in 2010 there is
no practical formula engineers can use
and trust that accurately calculates
how much water a particular section
of marsh needs, or how crossings of the
marsh should be designed in order to
keep the marsh in a more natural or
healthy state.
The most extreme and familiar
example in Glynn County is probably
the causeway leading to Oak Grove
Island. Southeast of the causeway the
marsh is green and healthy. Northwest
of the causeway the marsh is a real
mess, with bare mud and invading
plant species that indicate a degraded
marsh. It certainly was never the intent
of the developer or engineers on the
project to mess up the marsh, but there
was no guidance they could follow to
ensure a better result, so they gave it
the best guess they could.
Federal, state and local permitting
agencies do not have any fact-based,
tested models upon which to base their
decisions either. It was not just the
development community and permit
ting agencies without a clue. Months
of searching the scientific literature did
not turn up anything either. The closest
thing to what was needed tinned out
to be tsunami wave modeling from the
2004 Indian Ocean event.
Enter Glynn County Public Works
Director John Carter and Mosquito
Control Director Ben Brewer. Their
jobs are to provide needed public ser
vices as cost-effectively as possible.
Degraded marshes are the biggest
mosquito breeders and represent a
large part of mosquito control efforts
and costs. If we did not have marshes
degraded by human activity, the cost to
the County to control mosquitoes could
be dramatically reduced.
The closer they studied the problem
the more they realized that nature
already had the solution. Natural forces
maintain marshes in a generally sta
ble, though dynamic, condition. Human
activity interfered with these natural
processes.
If they could understand how to
restore those natural processes, with
out costing an arm and a leg, they could
reduce costs for mosquito control and
improve the marshes as well.
If construction in the County con
tinues to mess up marsh, their job will
just get more and more expensive every
year.
So the strategy is to find out how to
calculate how much water a defined
area of marsh needs and make sure the
marsh gets that minimum level. That
way we can stop increasing the acreage
of degraded marsh in Glynn County.
It’s that old adage that if you find
yourself in a hole, stop digging! That
will hold the line on escalating mosqui
to control costs due to acreage increase
in degraded marsh.
Next, use the equations to design
solutions that will repair the already
degraded marshes in the County. That
can reduce future mosquito control
costs.
John Carter assembled a working
group to tackle this challenge. The
experts said it was too complicated and
difficult to calculate exactly how water
flowed in a marsh, and they are prob
ably right.
But John and Ben did not need
exact, they needed close. John came up
with a model for water volume flowing
into and out of a known marsh for a
full tide cycle on a minute by minute
basis using calculus that zooms way
over my head, and compared his model
with what he observed in the marshes.
It seemed to be a pretty good fit. Just
like a marsh creek, this story has a lot
of twists and turns in it, but where we
are going is pretty exciting.
This project could ultimately make
Glynn County a healthier place to five
by reducing the mosquito population.
Mosquito control in Glynn County may
cost less by reducing the amount of
mosquitoes needing to be controlled.
The local environment wins because
this is a pesticide-free mosquito con
trol solution. The local economy wins
because instead of having the choice
of development OR the marsh we can
have development AND the marsh.
Currently John and Ben are setting
up a pilot study with help from the
Jekyll Island Authority, Sapelo Island,
DNR’s Coastal Resources Division and
Georgia Mosquito Control Association
and Cooperative Extension.
Together we hope to use multiple
ongoing studies with identical protocols
so results can be directly compared to
develop a practical method to restore
marshes.
To that end, Public Works has
applied for a Coastal Incentive Grant to
support the Jekyll Island marsh study.
If we can prove the concept on the pilot
study it will help start a process of
marsh restoration and mosquito sup
pression that will likely be copied up
and down the coast.
Ultimately engineers, developers,
elected officials county engineers and
others within the environmental com
munity will have a proven model for
determining whether that culvert is too
small to that bridge is too short to keep
a marsh healthy.
Tait Feed and Seed on Hwy 341 car
ries foggers, both canned and butane,
sprays, Mosquito Halt by Famam that
stops the transmittal of West Nile Virus
in horses, and the all natural, deet free
repellent Swamp Gator which is great
for those with respiratory problems. □
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We have helpful ways to make the bugs go away!
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