'This place wanted to be a wetland': how a farmer turned his fields into a wildlife sanctuary

[Jilly_in_VA]

Birdsong hums over the rumble of Karl Wenner’s truck as it bounces along the dusty trails that weave through his property. For almost 100 years, this farm in southern Oregon grew barley, but now, amid the sprawling fields, there lies a wetland teeming with life.

Wenner installed the wetland on 70 of the farm’s 400 acres to help deal with phosphorus pollution that leaked into the adjacent Upper Klamath Lake after his land flooded each winter. With support from a team of scientists and advocates, the project has become a welcome sanctuary for migrating and native birds that are disappearing from the area.

Today, this corner of Lakeside Farms looks far different from a typical American farm. Waterfowl nest among the vegetation, joining pond turtles and even endangered native fish near rows of sprouting barley.

Looking out at the swaying cattails and wocus plants peeking through the water on an afternoon in June, Wenner beams: “This place wanted to be a wetland.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/22/farm-wetland-bird-animal-sanctuary-oregon

This is beautiful! God bless Karl Wenner and others like him!

[republianmushroom]

1. It can be done. It is just what one values.

[people]

2. Farmer Creates Wetlands

That was wonderful to read. Thank you for posting it.

[redqueen]

3. It's wonderful seeing more people doing this

Rewilding is so, so critical.

[hunter]

4. This can be done at a much smaller backyard scale too.

Here's some tips on how to do it:

https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create

My wife and I don't use any pesticides or herbicides in our garden. There is always fresh water available, especially for the birds. We see all sorts of birds, from humming birds to large hawks and owls. A few varieties of lizards and salamanders live here.

In all the years we've lived here I've never seen a roach in the house, probably because any roaches that do make their way into our home or garden get eaten by the locals. Roaches depend on us to wipe out their predators and competition with insecticides that they themselves are resistant to.

As always, in the larger scheme of things, it's the choices we make as consumers that have the greater impacts on wildlife.

One of the most horrifying things we learned at Chernobyl and Fukushima is that humans going about their ordinary business do more damage to the natural environment than the worst possible sorts of nuclear accidents.