Excessive rain puts hitch in work at Second Marsh
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
Mother Nature is to blame after excessive rain throughout the month of June has caused the draw down of Oshawa’s Second Marsh to be postponed until next summer.
A collaborative project between the city, the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA), Friends of Second Marsh and Ducks Unlimited Canada was set to give the wetland a helping hand by pulling water out of the marsh, exposing the marsh floor to sunlight to promote plant growth vital to the ecosystem.
However, the marshes’ pumps were unable to keep up with the steady rains last month, the breaking point coming with the massive thunderstorm that swept through the GTA in the final week of June.
According to CLOCA, the rainfall amounts were well above historical average with more than three quarters of June’s rainfall pouring from the sky on June 22 alone.
“At that point, we decided, along with all the other agencies in the marsh management team, that we were past the time that we could effectively get the marsh drawn down to be beneficial,” explains Brian Brasier, executive director of the Friends of Second Marsh.
The last draw down at the marsh occurred more than a decade ago in 2004. To be successful this time around, the water needed to be pulled out by a certain time for the marsh floor to have ample time exposed to the atmosphere.
“The draw down of the marsh has to occur within a certain time frame within the year,” Brasier says.
Marsh lovers need not worry – the draw down has already been reslated to occur next summer, and Brasier says there has been no detrimental impact on the marshland, with the exception the marsh is missing out on the potential benefits it would have seen had the process been complete.
“We preferred to get it done sooner than later,” he says. “I think we’re kind of disappointed that it kind of happened this year.”
A silver lining for the team was the knowledge that a berm system installed in 2002, meant to redirect excess water from the surrounding creeks and into the marsh, is functioning as it should.
The redistribution of rainfall is one of the many functions of marshland, explains CLOCA’s director of Watershed Planning and Natural Heritage Heather Brooks in a press release.
“They can store significant quantities of water during rain events and slowly release water during dry periods. In this case, the existing infrastructure and Second Marsh worked together to help redirect high water levels and prevent overtopping of the banks downstream,” she said.