September 2008

TOPIC:  Emergent Wetlands Restoration in Cherokee Marsh and
How Lake Levels Challenge It

SPEAKER:  Russ Hefty

WHEN:  Tuesday, September 16

TIME:  7:00 pm Refreshments
TIME:  7:30 pm Program

WHERE:  Auditorium
UW Arboretum

PARKING:  Free parking at the Arboretum

PRE-MEETING DINNER:  You are invited to join Madison Audubon board members and friends at the pre-program dinner with our speaker beginning at 5:15.

Paisan's 131 West Wilson Street

QUESTIONS?:  Please call the MAS office at (608)255-2473.

Cherokee Marsh has changed a lot since the first dam was constructed at Lake Mendota’s outlet in the 1850’s. That dam raised the level of Lake Mendota approximately five feet. As a result, water backed up into the peat wetlands (sedge meadow, wet prairie, fen) along the Yahara River in Cherokee Marsh. Wetlands along the river’s edge broke away from the underlying peat to form floating plant mats. These floating plant communities are unstable in the presence of floods, wind, and ice action erosion. Russ Hefty will show us air photos, and original public land survey records to documented a loss of over 640 acres of wetlands along the Yahara River since that dam was built.

Russ has been working since 2001 to protect these floating plant mats and restore aquatic plants the marsh. The project goal is to reduce the erosion of the floating shorelines along the Yahara River by establishing an emergent marsh plant community along this interface. Through the process of adaptive restoration he developed a number of innovative techniques to establish native submergent, floating, and emergent plants in a soft bottom riverine system. One of his most visible successes involved developing a technique to establish American Lotus Water Lily from seed. By the end of the 2007 growing season American Lotus was present along 1.7 miles of shoreline.

Russ Hefty was the first intern at Goose Pond Sanctuary. He received a B.S. in Horticulture (with an emphasis in natural resource management) in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has over 25 years of experience managing natural areas in Southern Wisconsin. Since 1991 Russ has held the position of Conservation Resource Supervisor in the Madison Parks Division. He oversees 14 conservation parks, which total 1600 acres. Madison’s Conservation Park System is managed under a very active land stewardship program. In 2007 he received the Henry C. Greene Award for Innovative Approaches in Ecological Restoration for his emergent marsh restoration efforts in Cherokee Marsh.