Noel Schutt » St Marys River http://schutt.org/blog Tue, 22 May 2012 14:08:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 St. Marys River Watershed Project http://schutt.org/blog/2011/07/smrwp/ http://schutt.org/blog/2011/07/smrwp/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:32:36 +0000 Noel http://schutt.org/blog/?p=1245 After the success of the St Joseph River Watershed Initiative, its good to see that there is now a St Marys River Watershed Project. Before the SJRWI the St Joe water was so bad that it stung to touch it, now it is a good place to canoe. The St Marys Sewer River is in desperate need of a cleanup. I’ve paddled the St Marys from the Ohio border to its confluence with the St Joe to form the Maumee, and I wouldn’t recommend making this trip. In the summer there is a large visible and olfactory difference between the St Joe and St Marys rivers. In a short paddle through the confluence from the St Marys to the St Joe, the look of the water changes, the fish are swimming instead of floating, and the smell disappears. I’m hoping the SMRWP is successful and the St Marys becomes a nice healthy river.

]]> http://schutt.org/blog/2011/07/smrwp/feed/ 0 Flood control http://schutt.org/blog/2009/11/flood-control/ http://schutt.org/blog/2009/11/flood-control/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:01:19 +0000 Noel http://schutt.org/blog/?p=469 In a welcome change from projects like the Foster Park Flood Creation Project, which will make downtown flooding worse, a reasonable approach is being used in one Fort Wanye neighborhood. Homeowners in an area along Junk Ditch are being given the option of selling their houses to the city. According to the News-Sentinel, nearly half of the homeowners in the neighborhood are taking the offer. This will allow the area to be cleared of development, becoming a green space that can absorb flood water.


View Larger Map

In related news, I spent last Sunday afternoon with Dad and several Little River Wetlands Project volunteers documenting a new conservation easement. One-hundrend and forty acres of private land along the Little Wabash River floodplain are being restored. We took a bunch of 360° panoramas and GPS points at key locations on the property. These pictures can repeated every few years to track the changes to the land. Unfortunately, the county surveyor’s office is about to denude the bank along that section of the Little River.

]]> http://schutt.org/blog/2009/11/flood-control/feed/ 0