Wildlife Enjoys Oregon Department Of
Transportation-Created Wetlands
Salem, Oregon - Allison
Cowie is an environmental jack-of-all-trades. As the Oregon Department of
Transportation's (ODOT) Region 4 "wetlands specialist," she is
required to use a mix of biology, hydrology, botany, and soil science
knowledge, skills, and ingenuity.
Cowie has used her expansive knowledge of wetlands to change the way ODOT
creates these marshy bodies of water, which are often located next to rivers
and lakes. When a construction project impacts a wetland, ODOT is required by
federal and state laws to replace, in size, the affected area.
In the past, Cowie said, wetlands were replaced on a project-by-project basis,
near the construction site. This often created "postage stamp"
wetlands. Cowie began looking at ways to make wetlands more ecologically
appropriate and cost effective.
"Wetlands provide all these functions, such as flood protection, wildlife
habitat, and water purification," said Cowie, who has worked four years
at ODOT. "Large wetlands are more valuable ecologically and are also
cheaper because they consolidate our efforts."
Cowie is working on two wetlands restoration projects in Region 4 (central and
south-central Oregon). Both wetlands are five acres, with one next to the
Klamath River outside Klamath Falls and the other along the Crooked River near
Prineville.
Developing these wetlands has been in the works for several years. One of the
first steps was to find land suitable for the project. Cowie placed classified
ads in newspapers.
"I wanted to find land more suited to making a wetland," said Cowie.
"In central Oregon, that mostly means being by a river or a creek. If
there are wetlands on that land, I study the land and vegetation to construct
a similar one. The one near Prineville was previously a cattle pasture. There
are two or three acres of wetlands already there. It's going from this
degraded area to this corridor of wetlands, and the Crooked River really needs
this. "
So far, it hasn't taken much encouragement for the wildlife to return to the
area. While backhoes were still in the middle of digging out the projects,
animals were already taking residence.
"You can see so many bird prints in the mud, it's amazing," said
Cowie, who will introduce plants in the new wetlands and then monitor both for
the next five to seven years. "Klamath Falls has some of the most
spectacular habitats in the world. Birds stop at wetlands to eat and rest as
they migrate to Alaska. Wetlands are bird restaurants."
For more information about the agency's environmental protection and
preservation efforts, visit
ODOT's
Geo-Environmental Section web site.
