[0:00] (cheerful music) [0:01] - One of the really cool parts [0:02] of the Nine Mile Creek Valley [0:04] is all the different types of wetlands. [0:06] So you have wetlands that are right next to the stream. [0:09] You have the floodplain wetlands down [0:11] by the Minnesota River, [0:12] and then you have a lot of these little seep wetlands [0:14] that are scattered throughout the parks. [0:16] And these seep wetlands are from groundwater [0:18] that are literally seeping out of the ground [0:21] and it creates these wet zones. [0:22] And so we know where wetlands are by mapping them. [0:26] And a wetland is a wetland when it has enough water [0:30] during the growing season to support water loving plants. [0:34] And with that definition, we can literally go through [0:37] and map out where a wetland starts and where a wetland ends. [0:40] And you might see a lot of these little pink flags scattered [0:42] around the park right now, [0:43] and that is wetland delineation flags. [0:47] Each wetland is gonna need a unique management technique, [0:50] and that'll depend on what kind of wetland it is. [0:52] This one's kind of a wet meadow area [0:55] that's been kept clear trees [0:56] just because of how wet the ground usually is. [0:58] But managing for removal [1:01] of non-native woody material that's like buckthorn [1:03] and other things moving in, you might manage for some [1:06] of the invasive or really aggressive grasses [1:08] like reed canary grass and improve that species diversity. [1:12] And it could just be that it's a healthy site [1:14] and you wanna make sure that it continues [1:15] to be healthy in the future and manage like walking trails [1:18] and everything that go through it. [1:19] One challenge in managing wetlands in the corridor [1:22] are the black ash swamps, [1:25] and swamps are wetlands that are dominated by woody plants. [1:28] And the black ash have become functionally extinct [1:31] because of the emerald ash borer. [1:33] As managers, we're gonna have to make decisions [1:35] about how we bring back [1:36] that ecosystem without these big black ash, which are dying [1:40] and many of them, if not all of them now are dead, [1:44] and what that wetland looks like [1:46] as it regrows without that keystone species there. [1:49] Every wetland plays a unique role in the ecosystem [1:53] and that makes it complicated to manage them. [1:56] But part of the effort [1:57] that we're gonna make [1:58] in the Nine Mile Creek Corridor Renewal Project [2:01] is to ensure that one, we have good record [2:04] of where all these wetlands are, [2:05] and that we have a game plan [2:07] to do really good management in the long term. [2:10] And we're gonna have a relationship with these wetlands [2:12] for as long as we're caretakers of them. [2:14] (cheerful music continues)