Let the Scraping Begin!
In June 2020, Madison Audubon purchased a 36 acre parcel across the road from our Otsego Marsh property. The new parcel didn’t come pre-loaded with increidble diversity and beautiful vistas. It was mostly soybean fields, a woodlot chocked full of big oaks and invasive underbrush, and a small wetland with great potential. One needed a creative imagination to envision what it could be — and fortunately our staff, board members, volunteers, and donors had a vision!
The new parcel at Otsego Marsh in its 2020 state: soybean fields, overgrown woodlot, and wetland with potential. Madison Audubon photo
The resident managers and land steward at Goose Pond Sanctuary coordinate the restoration work at Otsego Marsh, and began getting the new parcel into shape by removing boxelder and invasive buckthorn in the woodlot’s understory that was choking out the good native species. And beginning on January 6, 2021, we began installing wetland scrapes!
The scrapes are being constructed in the farmed wetlands (areas where some years it was too wet to crop), which are currently dominated by annual weeds with a few wetland species.
Big-time work began on Jan 6, 2021. Note the understory getting cleared in the woodlot in the back. Photo by Brenna Marsicek / Madison Audubon
Two backhoes beginning to dig wetland scrapes in the new parcel at our Otsego Marsh property. Photo by Mark Martin / Madison Audubon
Wetland scrapes are shallow ponds that are irregularly shaped and are refilled primarily by the water table, rain water, and snow melt. At Otsego Marsh, groundwater is near the surface. These irregularly shaped pools are great places for amphibians (frogs, toads and salamanders) to lay their eggs, as well as breeding duck species. Goose Pond Sanctuary installed seven wetland scrapes in 2019 and has seen a great response in wildlife.
Wetland scrape in all its glory at Goose Pond Sanctuary. Photo by Arlene Koziol
Equipment on site includes three backhoes, two bulldozers, and one on-site hauling truck. They began by plowing 4-5 inches of snow to freeze the ground where the hauling road and wetland scrapes are going. Then two backhoes began removing soil from the farmed wetland. LMS construction has three large trucks hauling soil to their headquarters. On Thursday a neighbor that is a contractor had two small dump trucks hauling soil to headquarters. The more soil that is hauled off site means that less soil will need to be spread on the farmed uplands. The contractors are covering the cost of hauling the soil.
A sight not often seen in a natural area! Removing soil from the site to create wetland scrapes. Photo by Mark Martin / Madison Audubon
LMS stopped work on Thursday January 7th due to lack of frozen conditions in order to protect the soil from being compacted and/or from getting mired down in the mud. They expect the ground to freeze again when cold temperatures return and hope to resume work in late January.
It was interesting to see water rising in the first area that was scraped on Wednesday morning.
Stay tuned to learn more, or visit Otsego Marsh to see the activity for yourself!
Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers, Graham Steinhauer, Goose Pond Sanctuary land steward, and Brenna Marsicek, Madison Audubon director of communications & outreach
