TN Wild Side-Hatchie Wetland Restoration.mpg

From stories of ancient Japan, India, and Israel...to the 19th century tales of Dickens, Wells, and Twain...and even the brilliant contemplations of Albert Einstein, the concept of time travel has fascinated people for centuries. Now the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation is trying its hand at manipulating time. But instead of using fanciful machines or theories of relativity, they're tackling time with bulldozers and backhoes. Wild Side Guide Ken Tucker takes us to some West Tennessee bottomlands along the Hatchie River, where the TWRF is turning back time by restoring lost wetlands.

It's important to note that this restoration project has paid for itself. The site is called a wetland mitigation bank, which means the TWRF receives credits for the wetlands that have been restored. These credits can be sold to offset or mitigate permanent wetland impacts somewhere else. (Say you build a road that results in losing 1 acre of wetlands...that means you must restore or re-create that lost acre somewhere else.) That means no money from license sales went into purchasing the property, which will eventually become a Wildlife Management Area and opened to the public.

To find out more about the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation and the many programs it's involved in, visit their website at http://www.twrf.net/.

Here are some more Tennessee Wild Side episodes on wetlands and the Hatchie River watershed:

http://www.tnwildside.com/stories.asp?Story=128
http://www.tnwildside.com/stories.asp?Story=134
http://www.tnwildside.com/stories.asp?Story=744
http://www.tnwildside.com/stories.asp?Story=396


To find out more about Tennessee wetlands and the Hatchie, visit these sites:

http://www.state.tn.us/environment/na/wetlands/
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/tennessee/preserves/art...
http://hardemancountytn.com/site_files/0006/9695/Hardeman_1-HatchieRiver.pdf
http://www.fws.gov/hatchie/
http://scenichatchie.blogspot.com/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• wetlands
• rivers
• nature
• Tennessee
• environment