Students of the Masters program
Learning about the environment through hands-on work and
educating the public about the importance of wetlands.
Students making plans.
Future location of
the wetland
Learning about wildlife and the importance of wetlands
Getting to work. The first step was clearing out the
bottom of the pond and checking our gray-water sources.
Ingredients for a dam:
Bobcat (1)
Shovels (3-4)
Dirt (several tons)
Sprinkle with a dose of good
humor.
Building the dam. It needed to be tall and
strong, so for first the time we recruited the
help of machinery. We did our best to keep
the pond slopes gentle so plants could
grow.
We rented a compactor to make sure our dam wouldn’t
collapse. Students and teachers alike pitched in to carry
it.
Once we were done with the dam, we did percolation
tests on the soil and determined that it would not hold
water very well. We proceeded to get a pond liner and
practiced our teamwork in spreading it out and securing
it.
Next, everyone gets their plumbing education. To put
grey-water in the pond, we needed to tap into the water
lines coming from the main building. This meant long
pipes, deep holes, and lots of practice fitting PVC
together.
Thanks to the diligent work of
our engineer student, and
after a day of trial and error,
we managed to get our pipes
The end is in sight! Water is almost ready to go
into the pond, so now is the time for planting.
We took plants from a natural New Mexican
wetland and transplanted them into ours. The
water will ultimately support all kinds of
vegetation, but we started it with cottonwood
seedlings, cattails, and willows.
Next came the details. We covered our pipes, made a
few business calls, and coated our dam with sticks to
represent a natural beaver dam.
The miracle moment:
WE HAVE WATER!
After taking a moment to pause
and enjoy the filling pond, we
found more work to do. A last
few changes to our planting
arrangements, and then it was
time for water testing. We did
temperature, dissolved oxygen,
phosphates, and nitrates.
We did it
Our plants are growing, and the pond is slowly filling up.