Tractors and backhoes are almost finished carving out an artificial wetlands area in south Provo, but it remains to be seen whether wildlife and vegetation will flourish in their places.
Excavators are clearing ground next to East Bay Golf Course that will be inundated with water to make up for marshes that will be lost near Utah Lake as part of the Provo Municipal Airport runway extension project. Some of the natural habitat on the 146-acre site will be left intact. The area will be a combination of ponds, wetlands and uplands to provide shelter, nesting and food sources for a variety of animals."We try to create as much diversity as possible," said Terry Hickman, environmental coordinator with Creamer and Noble, a St. George engineering firm overseeing the project. Site work is about 90 percent complete.
As diverse as the area might be, there's no guarantee that manmade wetlands can successfully duplicate nature.
Brigham Young University botany and range science professor Kimball Harper said manmade wetlands in others parts of the nation are typically less than successful. "It looks like it ought to be home, but the birds don't think it's home," he said.
Kimball didn't want to prejudge the Provo project because he hasn't seen it.
Merrill Webb, a Provo High School biology teacher, agreed that mitigated wetlands aren't as productive as natural ones.
One example might be a U.S. Forest Service project in the Diamond Fork area of Spanish Fork Canyon. The Forest Service built dikes and diverted water from a stream on about seven acres this year. But some of the rocky soil couldn't hold the water. It percolated into the ground.
"A lot of times it takes awhile for things to get established," said Carol Nunn, a Forest Service wildlife biologist. "We try to mimic nature. Whether we do that or not, I don't know."
Nunn said she believes the project will be successful given time. Birds, including an eagle, frequented the site this year, she said.
The south Provo area between I-15 and Kuhni Road was a thriving refuge for waterfowl and other small animals after Utah Lake outgrew its shores in 1984. Many of the wetland plants and grasses that grew then still exist. Rows of cattails abut some of the property.
Webb sees some potential in the site because of that. "I think it could, with good management, come back to the way it was in the mid-'80s," he said. "I hope it works out, but I think it depends on the source of water."
A five-year management plan of the wetlands will begin next spring. Several government agencies and interested environmental groups will monitor the area's progress.
Hickman, who worked as a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist before joining Creamer and Noble, said nearby native plants are already migrating to the site. If it continues, seeding and transplanting will be unnecessary.
"I think the transition to go 10 or 15 feet next door isn't going to be difficult at all," he said.
Hickman said he was encouraged by the amount of wildlife he saw this spring, including baby quails, pheasant and geese.
Although Creamer and Noble hasn't worked on a wetlands project of this magnitude, Hickman said he's confident the south Provo site will be successful. The key, he said, is to have water available to keep the area from drying up. Provo City has purchased water rights to canal running through the property.
The Federal Aviation Administration directed Provo City to protect, enhance or restore at least twice the 60 acres of wetlands lost to the pending runway expansion. Airport manager Jim Mathis said the city has gone well beyond that mandate.
"We bought about three times as much property as we needed to buy to satisfy environmental concerns," he said.