Tag Archive for: Arrowwood

The Struggle to Keep Natural Flood Control Natural

12/18/24 – Bayou Land Conservancy (BLC), one of the area’s leading environmental groups, gave me an inside peak at what it takes to keep natural flood control natural. Preserving land for flood control along Houston area bayous and creeks is more difficult than it seems.

Kevin Muraira is BLC’s Land Stewardship Manager. He inspects more than 15,000 acres of land each year for encroachments. But he also oversees the ongoing restoration of BLC’s 117-acre Arrowwood Preserve near Tomball.

Muraira works with funding partners and community volunteers who share his vision to make Arrowwood an example of the natural diversity that supports native wildlife.

Below are excerpts from an interview with Muraira about the difficulties of keeping natural flood control natural.

The banks of Spring Creek in Arrowwood Preserve.

More than Flood Control

Rehak: Simply by preserving the 117 acres in BLC’s Arrowwood Preserve, you’re giving floodwaters a large area in which to safely collect without flooding nearby homes. And when the land isn’t flooding, it provides homes for native wildlife.

Muraira: Yes, a large part of what I’m doing there is helping restore native species that support native wildlife.

Rehak: BLC just acquired Arrowwood in 2020. What’s the current focus of your work there?

Muraira: We’re focusing on removing invasive species, such as tallow and privet. They crowd out the native species because they have no natural competition here. By removing them, we help native plants and trees re-establish themselves.

Tons of tallow grow throughout the preserve. In some areas, they dominate 80% of the canopy. It’s pretty bad. My group of volunteers and I started the invasive project in April of this year. Of the 117 acres, we’ve positively impacted about four acres total so far. 

Muraira working on tallow removal

It doesn’t sound like much, but people need to remember that this was done by four volunteers plus me. We only work at it for a couple hours a week.

Replacing Invasive Species with Natural Species

Rehak: How does tallow damage the other species? 

Muraira: Tallow leaves have high levels of tannings. They alter soil chemistry in ways that make it difficult for other plants to take root.

Invasive species like tallow don’t really have predators here that control them. Neither are they impacted by the same viruses and diseases that affect native plants. Gradually, they dominate the native plant community and crowd out native species that support local wildlife.

So, we have to remove it. When the canopy starts opening up, we will go back in and start replanting and taking care of our existing native trees, so they can thrive on the property.

Rehak: Those tallow seeds are poisonous to some bird species, too, aren’t they?

Muraira: They are. Tallow don’t really provide much ecological benefit. They just really take up space where we could have native plants growing. Those native plants could provide ecological benefits like food and shelter for wildlife. They also have deeper, more resilient root systems that can help stabilize stream banks and reduce erosion, which can lead to flooding.

Rehak: What will you replace the tallow with?

Muraira: Bald cypress. Water Oaks. Sycamores. River birch.

Planning to Maintain Flood Resilience

Rehak: Will removing tallow reduce flood resilience before the native species re-establish themselves?

Muraira: It’s possible that removing the tallow could de-stabilize stream banks. But we aren’t removing that many all at once. And we have a plan in place to reinforce the banks with other, more desirable native species. That will be a more desirable outcome.

Rehak: Certainly, if you’re doing four acres a year, it will minimize any impact on wetlands.

Muraira: Exactly.

Rehak: And it’s on a small enough scale that the rest of the preserve has a fighting chance to absorb the runoff.

Muraira: Exactly.

Building A Wildlife Sanctuary

Rehak: Are you planning other projects at Arrowwood?

Muraira: We plan on doing a wetland planting event in areas where the canopy opens up. Flowers, too. We plan on installing a native pollinator garden. 

We’ve constructed a more robust trail system that enables better access. And our trail crew is working on installing benches along the trails and at scenic overlooks.  

It’s a way to bring people out, like Lone Star students, and educate them about the value of wetlands. 

Rehak: Aside from the trails, are you planning on letting Arrowwood revert back to nature as much as possible with the native species?

Photo at Arrowwood courtesy of Phil de Blanc

Muraira: That’s the goal. I would love for Arrowwood to become a sanctuary for wildlife. There’s a lot of development going on nearby. So protecting this land, and planting and maintaining the native species that wildlife utilize for shelter and sustenance, is important. 

Main Value of Arrowwood Preserve

Rehak: What is the main value of this preserve in your mind?

Muraira: For me, the number one value is flood prevention or mitigation. Neighbors have told us that neighborhood has flooded a lot in the past. They were really concerned when they found out that a previous owner planned to turn the property into a quarry. 

But they know that we’re not impacting them negatively. We’re providing a place that holds water and retains run off to help protect them.

Rehak: What percentage of the preserve is wetlands?

Muraira: 104 acres out of 117 are completely in the floodway – so, most of it. When we get big rains, all 104 acres are completely flooded. You cannot walk through it. Only a little more than 12 acres are accessible and that’s still pretty difficult.

Ways to Support BLC’s Long-Term Vision

Rehak: Do you have a long-term vision for Arrowwood?

Muraira: To have a place for wildlife to survive; we’re losing habitat at an astronomical rate. And to have an outdoor classroom, where we can bring people out and educate them about the importance of protecting habitat for wildlife and protecting neighbors from floodwater.

Rehak: If somebody wanted to help you, what’s the best way?

Muraira: Call me. We have a number of ways. One of the most popular is our ambassador program. It’s like a mini-Texas-Master-Naturalist crash course. But beyond that, it gives folks a chance to see what Bayou Land Conservancy is all about. We try to keep natural flood control natural.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/18/24 based on an interview with Kevin Muraira of BLC

2668 Days since Hurricane Harvey

 

Bayou Land Conservancy Volunteers Protect Nature’s Flood Protection

12/7/24 – One of the leading environmental groups in the Houston region is the Bayou Land Conservancy (BLC). Their motto: “We preserve land along streams for flood control, clean water, and wildlife.”

Last year, BLC volunteers logged thousands of hours maintaining and improving natural areas and trails that help others appreciate nature’s wonders.

One such volunteer is Jeff Hodges. He helped restore land along Spring Creek in BLC’s Arrowwood Preserve, which is being used for environmental education. His story is a testament to the tenacity of BLC volunteers in their service of nature. Below are excepts from Hodges’ responses to my questions.

Preserve’s Contribution to Flood Reduction

Rehak: How does the Bayou Land Conservancy help reduce flooding?

Hodges: Development in the Houston area will continue. We need to understand how this can lead to increased flood risk of flooding if not managed correctly.

BLC is a land trust. It protects lands where rain water is absorbed and held as flood waters, slowing down the release of water into creeks, streams and rivers. That helps reduce or eliminate flooding downstream.

These lands are increasingly important. They let water soak into the land providing much needed water, to the water table and aquifers.

Currently, ever major aquifer in the U.S. is being depleted, except in the Pacific Northwest. This depletion contributes to subsidence, which increases flood risk. Areas in the Woodlands have lost two feet of elevation from subsidence.

The lands that BLC protects also provide habitat for wildlife and give people a chance to enjoy nature.

Rehak: Specifically, how does Arrowwood reduce flooding along Spring Creek.

Hodges: Arrowwood is a natural flood plain. It slows and stores rainwater flowing toward Spring Creek. A large portion of the preserve floods in heavy rains. It gives stormwater someplace to sit and wait instead of moving quickly downstream and flooding other areas already developed.

Restoring the Natural Environment

Rehak: I hear that in trying to make Arrowwood more user friendly, you and your fellow volunteers removed more than a mile of silt fence. How did it get there?

Hodges: A sand-and-gravel company installed the silt fence when it applied for a permit to turn the property into a quarry. But neighbors blocked approval of the permit. The mining company, after a number of years, donated the land to Bayou Land Conservancy.

Rehak: Removing that silt fence must have been a chore!

Hodges: We actually made a short movie about it. The preserve comprises 117 acres and the fence surrounded 22 acres. As work began to make the preserve accessible, we realized that we did not have the correct equipment to remove the silt fence.

Bayou Land Conservancy Volunteer Jeff Hodges led the Arrowwood Silt Fence Removal Project

We originally estimated the preserve had 2 miles of silt fencing containing approximately 700 posts, each weighing 5 pounds.

Jeff Hodges

The task seemed overwhelming. But we were very concerned about the impact of the fence on wildlife. Turtles and other small wildlife couldn’t get over or around it.

Volunteers Discover Task is Herculean

Rehak: What kind of problems did you encounter?

Hodges: I started to wonder if we could remove the silt fence manually. Bayou Land Conservancy gave me and a small team permission to work on it. The first day, two of us tried to develop a process to remove the silt fencing. In a half day, we could only remove about 10 posts and 50 feet of fencing.

Most of the posts had to be dug out by hand. Each was four feet and originally pounded into the ground to a depth of two feet. But over time, silt built up around the fence. Many sections were totally buried.

The silt fencing has three components: posts, heavy metal fencing, and a plastic tarp. The combination prevents silt, sand and rocks from washing into the creek.

After the first day, most people would have been discouraged. But our volunteers proved it could be done. It was just going to take a lot of time and effort.

Volunteers decided to separate the fence and post removal operations to speed things up.

We decided we would remove the metal fence along with the black tarp first. We left the posts until we were able to develop a better way to remove them.

But the removal of the fencing was not without problems. Portions of the fencing were buried, so we had to dig them out. Worse, the fencing had become overgrown. Before we could remove it, we first had to remove fallen trees, and cut away vines and brambles.

Triumph of Ingenuity, Sweat and Safety Goggles

Rehak: Did you ever develop a faster system?

Hodges: As we removed fencing over the next couple of months, we worked on developing a technique to remove posts without digging. Eventually, we developed a technique that sped up the operation. We hit the posts with a sledge hammer on all four sides to loosen them. Then we hooked up a farm jack to pry them out of the ground.

Working as a team, we could remove about 15 posts per hour. Some, buried to the top in heavy clay, still had to be dug out by hand. Those just took longer.

Everyone working on this project had to wear long pants, long sleeves, safety glasses, and heavy-duty work gloves. We also had to be up to date on our tetanus shots, too for obvious reasons.

Rehak: What did the final boxscore say?

Hodges: All in all, the team ended up removing 499 posts and more than 1.5 miles of fencing. While working on the fencing, we also removed trash and litter which seemed to be everywhere. Fencing and trash filled two industrial dumpsters.

Some of the trash and fencing materials removed from the BLC Arrowwood Preserve.

It was grueling work. But the transformation of the land is overwhelming. And very satisfying. The beauty of what this preserve will become is now evident. 

Postscript: Jill Boullion, Bayou Land Conservancy Executive Director, said, ““Jeff was awarded our Trailblazer Award for 2024 because of his leadership on this project. It’s an important part of our restoration plan for Arrowwood that will make the preserve even more ecologically valuable for the community. We appreciate volunteers like Jeff and the crew that did this very difficult project.”

Posted by Bob Rehak and Jeff Hodges on 12/7/24

2657 Days since Hurricane Harvey

FEMA Publishes Nature-Based Solution Guides, Advice

FEMA has published two flood-mitigation guides on nature-based solutions showing how communities can develop projects with multiple benefits.

Both are titled “Building Community Resilience with Nature-Based Solutions.” But one focuses on “Strategies for Success.” The other focuses on “A Guide for Local Communities.” Together, they build a case for integrating green and gray solutions to improve resilience.

While geared toward policy makers, planners and flood-mitigation professionals, they will also help community leaders, activists, students and anyone interested in weaving green solutions into flood mitigation, whether on the watershed, community or household level.

These are not technical guides. They focus on high-level benefits and are packed with helpful examples and case studies. The writing is clear, compelling and easy to understand.

“Strategies for Success” Summarized

Strategies for Success is organized around five major themes.

  • Building strong partnerships
  • Engaging the whole community
  • Matching project size with desired goals and benefits.
  • Maximizing benefits.
  • Designing for the future.

If you wonder what the term “nature-based solutions” includes, see pages 17-22. They complement gray (engineered) solutions in many ways in many environments.

At the watershed scale, they can include:

  • Land conservation
  • Greenways
  • Wetland restoration and protection
  • Stormwater parks
  • Floodplain restoration
  • Fire management
  • Bike trails
  • Setback levees
  • Habitate management

At the neighborhood or site scale, they include:

  • Rain gardens
  • Vegetated swales
  • Green roofs
  • Rainwater harvesting
  • Permeable pavement
  • Tree canopy
  • Tree trenches
  • Green streets
  • Urban greenspace

In coastal areas, they include:

  • Wetlands
  • Oyster reefs
  • Dunes
  • Waterfront parks
  • Living shorelines
  • Coral reef
  • Sand trapping

The section about maximizing benefits will help leaders sell such projects to their communities. It contains helpful tips that improve value and case studies that dramatize it.

The guides also come with links to additional resources.

“Guide for Local Communities” Summarized

This guide begins by reprising many of the same solutions mentioned above. Then it quickly moves into three main sections:

Building the business case for nature-based solutions summaries their potential cost savings and non-monetary benefits. They include:

  • Hazard mitigation benefits in a variety of situations/locations
  • Community co-benefits, such as ecosystem services, economic benefits, and social benefits
  • Community cost savings, such as avoided flood losses, reduced stormwater management costs, reduced drinking water treatment costs.

Planning and Policy Making covers:

  • Land-use planning
  • Hazard mitigation planning
  • Stormwater management
  • Transportation planning
  • Open-space planning

Implementation includes:

  • Boosting public investment
  • Financing through grants and low interest loans
  • How to incentivize private investment
  • Federal funding opportunities

Key takeaways include:

Communities that invest in nature-based approaches can save money, lives, and property in the long-term AND improve quality of life in the short term. Other key takeaways are:

  1. The biggest selling point for nature-based solutions is the many ways they can improve a community’s quality of life and make it more attractive to new residents and businesses.
  2. Diverse partners must collaborate.
  3. Scaling up will require communities to align public and private investments.
  4. Many types of grant programs can be leveraged for funding.

I’ll add one more: It’s easier to build these into communities as they are developing rather than retrofit them after the fact.

Local Examples

Regardless, the right combination of green solutions can make a valuable supplement to flood mitigation in every community.

The 5,000 acre Lake Houston Park provides recreational amenities and flood protection to surrounding areas.

Many great examples of a nature-based solutions surround us locally. Look at Lake Houston Park; Kingwood and The Woodlands which have greenbelts and bike trails along creeks; the Spring Creek Greenway; and the Bayou Land Conservancy’s Arrowwood Preserve.

Recreational asset and flood-mitigation project.

Parks like Kingwood’s East End make more great examples. East End preserves wetlands, accommodates tens of thousands of visitors each year, and provides valuable habitat for wildlife.

Interested in getting more projects like this started near you? As a starting point, please share these brochures with leaders in your community. And support local groups seeking to preserve green spaces such as the Bayou Land Conservancy.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/23/23

2046 Days since Hurricane Harvey