Taking Care of the Abrams Creek Wetlands
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Taking Care of 2010 Online Edition the Abrams Creek Wetlands: Purposes of This Booklet Tips for Homeowners, Landscapers Your property may border the Abrams Creek Wetlands, or you may live or work a few miles away. You may be a construction supervisor, and Businesses homeowner, business executive or landscaper. No matter where you live or what kinds of work you do in our community, the choices you make as you care for a piece of land can affect the Abrams Creek Wetlands and Abrams Creek itself. This booklet’s next few pages describe why the Abrams Creek Wetlands are important to our community. The sections that follow explain how you can maintain and enhance your property and home without harming the wetlands, Abrams Creek or the surrounding watershed. Included are guidelines for choosing plants for gardening and landscaping, controlling pests, preventing soil runoff, and creating habitats for wildlife. Each section ends with sources of further information. Eight undergraduates in Shenandoah University’s Environmental Studies Program prepared this booklet as a course project during the spring semester of 2006. We were inspired by previous Shenandoah students and a local citizens organization, The Opequon Watershed (TOW). For more than a decade, they have promoted a greater understanding, appreciation and protection of Abrams Creek and its wetlands. We were also inspired by the Good Neighbor Handbook. Tips and Tools for River-Friendly Living in the Middle Potomac Region published by the Potomac Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy. Our booklet, local in scope, addresses similar issues in our small portion of this watershed. Publication was supported by gifts from private individuals to Shenandoah University. As our work progressed, several persons offered helpful advice. To all who assisted us, supported us and inspired us, we express our gratitude. Simpson’s Nature Photography Cover: Patient observers occasionally spot green herons (Butorides striatus), like the one in this photograph, stalking fish, frogs and other aquatic life in the Abrams Creek Wetlands and along Abrams Creek. Prepared in May 2006 by students in Shenandoah Photo by Simpson’s Nature Photography (www.agpix.com/snphotos). University’s Environmental Studies Program The Abrams Creek Wetlands What Are Wetlands, and Why Are Wetlands Protected ? Where Are the Abrams Creek Wetlands ? Wetlands are transition zones between land and water. They include swamps, marshes, bogs, fens and shallow ponds. In a wetland, the The Abrams Creek Wetlands extend for 1½ miles along Abrams ground is saturated with water for a substantial part of the year. Creek, from Route 37 on the west to Harvest Drive on the east. Some wetlands have standing water, while others are merely soggy. Located in both the City of Winchester and in Frederick County, the Wetlands can occur in areas where surface water collects or where wetlands area includes grassy marshes, tree-shaded swamps, sunny groundwater rises to the surface as springs and seeps. meadows and upland forests. People value wetlands for many reasons. Undisturbed wetlands act as sponges. They soak up rain water, preventing or reducing the impacts of floods. Each acre of wetlands can store more than 360,000 gallons of water when covered by a foot-deep flood. Wetlands gradually release water into streams, lakes, and groundwater supplies. Thus, wetlands help keep a creek full during droughts and in its banks after storms. Excess fertilizers and pesticides, agricultural runoff, and leaky septic or sewage systems can release harmful materials into Abrams Creek. Nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen increase plant growth in streams, which, in turn, decreases oxygen levels for fish and other aquatic life. Sediment from improper construction or faming practices can clog fish gills and bury the aquatic plants and animals on which other organisms feed. Sediment can also breed harmful bacteria. Wetlands help trap, filter or neutralize many of these materials before they enter the creek. In October 2003, Winchester’s City Council established the Abrams Creek Wetlands Preserve on the north side of Abrams Creek and the Wetlands contribute to biodiversity by providing food and habitat to Winchester & Western railroad tracks. Developers donated the 25 many species of animals. Nearly half of all federally threatened and acres that make up the preserve. They also built the pathway that endangered species depend on wetlands for feeding, nesting, breeding forms the first mile of the Winchester Green Circle, an 8-mile route and/or rearing young. Freshwater fish depend on wetlands for food, for walking and bicycling that will circle the city of Winchester. This habitat and breeding places. preserve is Winchester’s first officially protected natural area. It is managed by the Winchester Parks and Recreation Department. A Wetlands can also provide recreational opportunities for both citizens organization, The Opequon Watershed (TOW) has been residents and tourists alike. They offer places of natural beauty for instrumental in establishing the preserve and quiet reflection, wildlife observation, bicycle rides and family walks. Protected wetlands, streams, forests and other open spaces also Most of the Abrams Creek Wetlands acreage on the south side of the increase the value of nearby property and enhance the quality of life in railroad tracks lies in Frederick County. As of May 2006, none of this the entire community. property in the county has been formally protected. Current development plans include leaving an undeveloped buffer zone around the wetlands when residences and roads are built. Why Are These Wetlands Special ? The following sections of this booklet presents tips to help show you how to care for your home, business or other property while taking Wetlands are rare in the Shenandoah Valley. Most rainwater runs off precautions to avoid harming Abrams Creek and the surrounding into surface streams or percolates quickly through cracks in our wetlands. Caring for these places now assures that we can enjoy them limestone bedrock. Many local wetlands have been drained, filled in or in the future. paved over to make way for homes, industries, stores, roads and educational institutions. Few undisturbed wetlands remain. Use Pesticides and Fertilizers Wisely Studies by Shenandoah University’s Environmental Studies Program and by the Virginia Division of Natural Heritage show that the Abrams Fertilizers and Soil Tests Creek Wetlands are one of the most biologically rich locations in Virginia. More than 15 species of plants that are rare in the state live Fertilizers are organic or synthetic materials that can be spread in in the Abrams Creek Wetlands Preserve. In July the small, bright blue lawns, gardens and around landscaping where the soil lacks sufficient flowers of marsh skullcap (Scutellaria galericulata) huddle among the nutrients for healthy plant growth. Most fertilizers provide the three wildflowers and grasses. In the late summer and early fall, you can see major plant nutrients – nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium hundreds of light purple willow asters (Aster prealtus) along the (K) – in varying proportions. The three numbers on a fertilizer Winchester Green Circle pathway as it crosses the marshes. These container’s label show the N-P-K percentages provided. are two of three of plant species found in the preserve that grow nowhere else in Virginia. Since some Shenandoah Valley soils are already high Many animals also make these wetlands their home. Muskrats, mink, in nutrients, many lawn, foxes, deer, herons, ducks, songbirds, turtles, frogs, salamanders, fish garden or landscape plants and butterflies all live in or pass through the Abrams Creek Wetlands may not need fertilizer. area. Naturalist Jim Smith has recorded over 150 species of birds, Before fertilizing, perform a many of which nest in or next to the wetlands. soil test to determine what nutrients, if any, your soil This remarkable variety of plants and animals reflects the different requires. You can test the kinds of habitats along Abrams Creek. The Virginia Natural Heritage Program classifies two of these habitats as rare in Virginia: wet An example of N-P-K percentages. soil yourself with a soil test prairies and calcareous muck fens. While “calcareous muck fen” might kit that can be purchased at not sound like a place of beauty, these calcium-rich marshes make up most local nurseries. An alternative is to contact Virginia Cooperative most of the Abrams Creek Wetlands Preserve. Protecting these fens Extension office in Winchester (540/665-5699) to obtain a soil testing allows birds to sing, wildflowers to bloom and butterflies to feed. package. With your sample and a five-dollar check, the soil test can be performed professionally and accurately. In the long run, having your The Abrams Creek Wetlands also provide many opportunities for soil tested is a smart way to save money while properly caring for recreation and education. Local school and youth groups – from your property. elementary-school to university level – have taken field trips and carried out service and research projects here. Adult Sunday school Fertilizer Runoff classes have visited. On any day and in any weather, people are Sometimes, fertilizers don’t end up nourishing yard and garden plants. walking, jogging, bicycling, watching the wildlife or just enjoying the Rainstorms wash excess fertilizer into streams, and some soaks into attractive scenery and natural sounds along Abrams Creek. groundwater. In streams, nitrogen and phosphorous can cause harmful algae “blooms” and excess plant growth. This reduces the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water and can cause fish kills. Fertilizer that washes into wetlands alters the natural soil chemistry, Pesticides can have both immediate and longer-term effects. Fish die sometimes favoring plants that wouldn’t normally grow well there. immediately when they absorb toxic levels of pesticides through their gills or by eating pesticide-coated insects. Longer-term effects are Fertilizing Tips and Alternatives harder to identify because the consequences take time to develop and are sometimes indirect.