On April 11, 2013 I drove to Wooster, Ohio to attend the
Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), Midwest - Great Lakes Chapter conference. I
drove in the rain the entire eight hour long trip from Algonquin, IL. Wooster
is surrounded by rolling hills of farm fields and small second and third
generation wood lots, the original forests cleared long ago. The occasional
horse and buggy trotting along the roads is testimony of Amish communities in
the area. Two years back I partook with some family members in the Amish
Country bike ride in Indiana and saw first-hand the traditional farming
practiced by this community that still resists most modern conveniences. The
Super 8 hotel, just off the main road is sandwiched between a Stake House Bar
to the west and Bob Evans Restaurant to the east. The first day of the
conference temperatures dropped, with showers and strong winds; ideal weather
to spend indoors.
The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center is on
the south side of town, part of the Ohio State University network. This is the
fifth annual meeting of this chapter and my first attendance. About one hundred
plus members were here out of 250 or so. It is a small number compared to the
thousands that attend SER’s international biannual conferences. I was scheduled
to deliver my talk Saturday morning at 8:30AM; a time I thought too early for
good attendance, however, as it turned out, the best time for me. Friday’s
panel discussions were animated and provoked much interest on my part. Jeffrey
Reutter’s presentation on the fate of Lake Erie struck me in particular.
Reutter’s main point was the annual blue-green algae blooms, due to farm field
runoff, posed direct threat to the Lake Erie fish and tourist industries and
overall aquatic ecosystem. This tragic turn of events came at the heels of much
success during the 1980’s when Lake Erie was the poster child for best example
of ecosystem recovery following a steep decline during post WWII years, marked
at its worse condition by one of the burnings of the Cuyahoga River in
Cleveland (1969). After Q&A I approached Mr. Reutter and asked if creating
wetland type habitats could help and briefly described my proposal of
converting marinas to fish refugia. He thought it worthwhile and suggested I
contact Sarah Orlando at the Ohio Clean Marinas Program. I have done so since
my return to the Chicago area and there is an interest on her part to know more
about the proposal. I e-mailed my sketches to her and awaiting a reply.
Back at the hotel I was woken abruptly at 2:30AM on the
morning of April 13th, the day of my presentation, by someone slamming his body
against the door to my room attempting a forceful entry. I called out for him
to stop, he did for a minute or so only to resume. I phoned the front desk
without receiving an answer so I called the police. Ten minutes later I heard
the police officers’ conversation with this man, he was obviously high on
something and from my window I could see him handcuffed, placed in the back of
the squad car and driven off to sober up in the local jail. It proved
impossible to go back to sleep, so I decided to sketch out a new concept, swirling
in my mind, inspired by the algae growth problems, that of adaptable, transient
wetland systems that can be moved about where most needed. Later that morning I
was glad to be the first presenter, given my state of questionable wakefulness
that would become burdensome as the day progressed.
I stressed my work to be associated with urban ecology and
wanted to be part of the urban ecosystem session, instead I was placed in the
coastal areas and wetlands session. Despite my disappointment in this selection
I learned about the degradation of coastal wetlands from one of the talks that made
my approach more relevant in ways I had not foreseen. 95% of coastal wetlands
along the shores of Lake Erie have disappeared, those that are left occupy
small areas under stress and some only
persist due to dike construction that prevent high water levels to flood them
out, of course in these conditions they no longer function as coastal wetlands.
The recent drop in lake levels is now prompting the removal of these dikes but if
water rises again they will need to be rebuilt. Solutions being acted upon are
the reclamation of inland wetlands to clean runoff before it enters tributaries
to the lake and programs to educate farmers to stop using phosphor and nitrogen
laden fertilizers; these are long term solutions. The short term solution still
depends on direct applications in the lake itself. My proposal utilizes the
more than 300 existing marinas along the Ohio coastline to create fish refugia
and now includes treatment for algae blooms.
As I drove back to Chicago on the Sunday morning I was
painfully aware that this often idealized bucolic landscape hid a treacherous
secret. It is an American Gothic tale; beautiful historical farmstead
architecture form picturesque façades below which flow rivers of poison. Having
been born to farmers and shepherds of the Abruzzo region of Italy, I have a
soft spot for the farming community’s way of life, perhaps an organic version
of it can be refashioned for future generations. Spotting another horse and
buggy, I wondered whether the Amish were contributing to the problem with the
use of fertilizers, or if along with the watersheds, were themselves victims.
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