JANUARY 27 was an exciting day at the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve! The SAS Wetland Committee was joined by several wetlands experts to dig three test pits. What we found was encouraging but not entirely surprising. We saw several feet of rich, dark, decomposed organic matter with very little mineral content, followed by several feet of thick dark clay and around 6 feet down we found the sand and rounded gravel of an ancient stream bed. We even found a few small clam and snail shells mixed in with that buried sand. We also watched as the pits slowly filled in with ground water. All of this combined shows that this area has been very wet for a very long time. These pits give our design team more insight into the soils and materials they will encounter during the restoration work to come.
FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER
IAWP Update February 2021 by Chris Nixon, SAS President
Our excitement builds as the design continues. Rich McEldowney and Confluence Inc. have provided the 70% design updates for the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve (IAWP) to our Wetland Preservation Project WPP committee. The design has been reviewed by the committee and will go before the SAS board this month for full board review. The 100% design will be forthcoming in the next couple of months.
SAS will be contracting with local experts of Montana Aquatic Resource Services (MARS) to navigate all the permits and regulations for establishing the majority of the IAWP as a wetland mitigation bank. This wetland mitigation bank lies adjacent to the already existing I-90 East Bozeman Wetland Mitigation Bank that was created by the Montana Department of Transportation in 2009. The MDT mitigation site serves only the needs for wetland impacts related to MDT projects in the area. The IAWP site will be available for wetland impacts generated by entities other than MDT. Of course, the preferred action is to not impact wetlands at all, but rather preserve and enhance their functions onsite whenever possible.
The high profile of the IAWP, spearheaded by SAS working with numerous other local organizations, has helped bring the importance of our area wetlands back to the forefront. The City of Bozeman has now moved wetlands up to a top tier priority. City Staff will update the inventory on wetlands within the City limits/growth boundary and update the critical lands study. You can view the latest status on actions and plans by the City of Bozeman in the City’s Strategic Plan Priorities report of January 12, 2021 by City Manager Jeff Mihelich.
Combining the interest and determination of SAS, the Greater Gallatin Watershed Council (GGWC), Trout Unlimited (TU), Ducks Unlimited (DU), MARS, Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT), and other organizations to protect our remaining wetlands, with the renewed priority of wetlands by the Bozeman City Commission, gives us renewed hope for our local wetlands. However, consider yourself and your voice as key in this matter. YOU are SAS. YOU are quite possibly GGWC, TU, DU, GVLT. And YOU are definitely – BOZEMAN. We encourage you to express your concerns and interest in wetlands to your local officials. Give of your resources when possible, be they financial or volunteer hours. Help preserve our wetlands and promote the ever increasing need to keep water on and ‘in the land’.*
(*Indreland means ‘In the Land’ in Norwegian. )
