Sunday, December 16, 2007
The view from my (new) house
Earlier this afternoon we were walking around the second floor of the house we are building elsewhere in town, and a great blue heron landed in the back yard and wandered into our "wetland," delimited by the stakes in the foreground.
On the one hand, I consider the "wetland" -- nothing more than a depression excavated by the former owner in the hope of trapping rainwater into temporary mosquito farms pools -- and the regulation thereof an outrageous infringement on our property rights. On the other hand, if it regularly attracts magnificent birds, I might learn not to resent it.
10 Comments:
By 
, at
Sun Dec 16, 08:15:00 PM:
All you need are some frogs. As long as it stays wet enough so fish hatchlings can thrive, the mosquito larvae will be eaten before metamorphing into a nuisance. It will be an interesting ecosystem to watch.
By 
TigerHawk, at
Sun Dec 16, 08:18:00 PM:
Frogs would be good, and we may get some in the spring. Problem is, it dries up in a few days, so nothing big can live there permanently. That said, I hope we are moved in before the spring really gets going, and we'll have a chance to chronicle it. Perhaps here!
By CW, at
Sun Dec 16, 08:51:00 PM:
Oh, I forgot to include a wetland bit in my rant on opposition to everything groups. One of them persuaded a municipality to classify an area as a wetland. Then it was discovered that a nearby section of aqueduct had been leaking for several years, thereby producing said wetland.
CW
By , at
Sun Dec 16, 09:19:00 PM:
Get some mosquito dunks. They are Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis. Quite safe for all life forms other than mosquitoes and black flies. They'll work fine before and after the dry spells which would kill off the frog. Toads, however, would survive the drying up. See:
http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/bti.html
By SR, at
Sun Dec 16, 11:23:00 PM:
"Delimited by the stakes?"
Looks like you've got about 6 inches of 'wetlands."
That ought to be enough to hold up your house for ten years.
By Georg Felis, at
Mon Dec 17, 12:34:00 AM:
Sounds like the official term is "Man-Made Wetland". I would set up an appointment to talk to a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service engineer, and see if the designation can be changed. sr is right, ever since the Army Corps of Engineers defined "Navigable Waters of the US" as "Anything wet at any time of year", some of the driest spots are declared wet and vice versa. And for God's sake don't do any earthmoving until you get some official blessing or you'll never hear the end of it.
Cavet: I neither do wetland determinations, or influence them, but I've seen a whole pile of them done at work. It is the only science that is more subjective than Theology.
By , at
Mon Dec 17, 12:52:00 AM:
We have a pond with in our city limits and occasionaly a GREAT BLUE HERIN will stop by and and WILD DUCKS and CANADA GEESE WILL stop and in fact we still have wild ducks comming to it and a few months ago i saw two GREEN BACKED HERONS and a few years ago a couple of OSPREY was there and one cuaght a fish from the pond
By TigerHawk, at
Mon Dec 17, 07:17:00 AM:
Last Anonymous guy -- I simply refuse to believe that you are not "Bird of Paradise." Where have you been? We miss you, man.
By , at
Mon Dec 17, 10:47:00 AM:
Hey, Tigerhawk -- Congrats on the new house and on today's blogiversary (for lack of a better term -- please come up with a better term!) MCU
By GreenmanTim, at
Mon Dec 17, 10:50:00 AM:
My God, there are two of them! Or maybe B of P has a twin...
