Wetlands

 

CNC's Wetlands Area was created in 1991 as a result of a mitigation with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and a development company that wanted to build a shopping mall on the north side of Midland.

	LAKES:  13,000 years ago • Glaciers recede.  Melts water. Lakes and streams cover this area up to 70 feet deep.
	HUNTERS:  11,000 years ago • Nomadic people make stone spear points and scrapers.
	ICE AGE ENDING:  10,000 years ago • Mammoths and giant beavers live in this area.

	EARLY TREES: 8,700 years ago • Spruce flourish in a cool wetland forest.
	WARMER:  7,200 years ago • A drier pine forest thrives as the climate warms.
	REMNANT BOG:  6,800 years ago • The bog forms as water drains from a 30-foot sand dune left by glacial lakes.
	STABILIZED:  5,000 years ago • The climate cools and stabilizes, favoring deciduous trees.
	ARCHAIC HUMANS:  4,700 years ago • Semi-nomadic people camp along a nearby river to fish, hunt, and gather food.  They make axes to cut wood.
	EUROPEANS:  400 years ago • When European explorers arrive in Michigan, a third of it is wetlands.
	CLEARING:  100 years ago • Logging and homestead farming have destroyed local swamps.
	DRAINAGE:  1909 • The Burgoon drainage ditch channels water into the Chippewa River.
	SAND MINING:  1950 • Ancient sand dunes are removed for construction of highway M20.  Over one million cubic yards of sand are removed during the next 40 years.
	WETLANDS SURVEY:  1956 • The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that 71% of Michigan's wetlands have been destroyed.
	FEDERAL PROTECTION:  1972 • Section 404 of the Clean Water Act is passed in response to concern over national wetland loss.
	WETLAND REPLACEMENT DEMANDED:  1986-1990 • Concern about wetland loss delays construction of a shopping mall (north of Midland), which would destroy 20 acres of wetlands.  Michigan's Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determine that wetlands must be created nearby to replace the acreage destroyed.  At the invitation of the Chippewa Nature Center, the mall developer inspects locations at CNC and begins plans to comply with government regulations.
	WETLANDS CONSTRUCTED:  1990-1992 • Three basins totaling 40 acres are excavated here.  Soil and muck are hauled from the mall construction site, and many new plants are transplanted, speeding development of the marshes.  By spring of 1992, the basins are filled with runoff and shallow groundwater.  Spillways are constructed to allow water to flow between basins, into the Burgoon drain and then to CNC's Oxbow.