[Date Prev][Date Next][Date Index]

E-M:/ Introduction and wetland questions

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enviro-Mich message from "rjriley" <rjriley@rjriley.com>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am an independent inventor www.rjriley.com/about-rjriley/ who is also very
active in politics at the federal level.  I hold a number of upper level
positions in inventor organizations.  I also have a 146 acre farm where we
have excavated numerous ponds (for irrigation and fish production).  I have
some knowledge of wetlands, probably just enough to be dangerous.  I have
had some interaction with the DEQ over about a fifteen year interval.  I
have mentioned these suggestions to several DEQ staff but nothing has come
of them.  My problem is that it is difficult to get information from the DEQ
because they are stretched so thin.

I invent in many areas, spanning many disciplines.  I am an engineer who
strives to see resources used to their best advantage.  I am very concerned
about misuse of the environment.  In many cases inventions are made by
people who are outside a profession, people who see solutions to problems
which elude those who are more knowledgeable.

I have two suggestions which I believe would benefit the environment.

1) When a permit is issued to remove wetland materials someone should be
coordinating between the group issuing the permits and the groups
supervising cleanups, reconstruction, and mitigation.  It seems to me that
it is a terrible waste to lose the seed bank in the material being removed
and that where possible the muck should be used in other wetlands.

2) I have looked a  number of engineered wetlands and also become quite
familiar with the physical (structural) characteristics of natural wetlands
on my farm.  I have noticed that engineered wetlands are not anywhere near
as diverse or viable as the natural ones.  I suspect that the problem is two
fold.  The first being that most are created with topsoil whose organic
content is not anywhere near as high as muck and second that the engineered
wetlands do not trap and meter out water as does a natural wetland.

Which brings me to the primary reason for this post.  I read over a year ago
that telephone books were no longer being recycled.  At the time I contact
the Flint Journal environmental reporter with this suggestion but she never
followed up with an article.  The telephone books are now going to
landfills.  I think that telephone books would make a good substitute for
the layer of peat which is present in many natural wetlands.  I suspect that
engineered wetlands would fair much better if they had a two to four foot
layer of recycled paper and a pond next to the wetland to act as a source of
water which would weep up through the paper base.

I also suspect that yard wastes could be used to good effect in wetland
construction.

 I am willing to supply a test site for an engineered wetland adjacent to a
pond if anyone is interested in experimenting with this concept.  In the
event there is interest I would like to see the program used as an
educational tool and coordinated with 4H and colleges.  See
www.rjriley.com/ed-initiative for an invention related program.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ronald J. Riley (810) 655-8830, Fax (810) 655-8832
President, Professional Inventors Alliance
http://www.rjriley.com/pia
Advisory Board President,
Alliance for American Innovation, Inc., Wash, DC
http://www.Alliance-DC.org/
E-mail rjriley@.Alliance-DC.org or rjriley@rjriley.com
Personal page: http://www.rjriley.com/about-rjriley/
Views expressed are my own.




==============================================================
ENVIRO-MICH:  Internet List and Forum for Michigan Environmental
and Conservation Issues and Michigan-based Citizen Action.   Archives at
http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/enviro-mich/

Postings to:  enviro-mich@great-lakes.net      For info, send email to
majordomo@great-lakes.net  with a one-line message body of  "info enviro-mich"
==============================================================