Wetlands Restoration Could Reduce Dead Zone

The Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River has a dead zone of approximately 975 square miles. That would cover 80% of the state of Rhode Island. This dead zone is an area of low-oxygen water created by extreme amounts of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen. These nutrients typically come from fertilizers applied to farm fields and lawns which are then washed into the Mississippi River and flushed directly into the Gulf of Mexico. The nutrients rob the water of oxygen making it unsuitable for plants and animals in an area that makes up a large portion of the nations fishing grounds.

As wetlands are lost, this dead zone grows. Wetlands typically filter out these excess nutrients and provide fresh, oxygen-rich water to the Gulf of Mexico; however, Louisiana is losing a football field of wetlands every 38 minutes. Researchers are working furiously to restore balance to this fragile ecosystem. Wetlands are being developed upstream of the Gulf Coast to help reduce nutrient loads entering the Mississippi River and restoration efforts abound along the coast. Rebuilding wetlands along Louisiana's coast not only benefits water quality, but also provides invaluable hurricane protection by reducing storm surge and, in turn, reducing potential stresses on levees.

Longleaf Pine Restoration

The US Army Corps of Engineers at Allatoona Lake has revived a natural ecosystem that was once native to the land surrounding the lake. Due to farming on the land prior to creation of the lake, the Longleaf pine ecosystem was transformed to a forest of more aggressive Loblolly and Virginia pines. Longleaf pine offers more benefits to wildlife and, in fact, offers such diversity that it serves as host to unique communities of plants and wildlife. Corps of Engineers personnel removed the competing pines and recreated the natural ecosystem through replanting and emulating wildfire. This undertaking took place on approximately 60 acres of the Allatoona Wildlife Management Area in Cherokee County near the border of Bartow County and has been so successful that the restoration will be expanded to almost 350 acres.


While this project is great for Allatoona Lake, it will hardly make a dent in the millions of acres of longleaf pine ecosystem that have been lost in the last 50 years. Many other parks and refuges are also planning longleaf pine restorations.

Valley Park Restoration

Valley Park, Missouri

This narrow, high velocity stream was experiencing severe erosion. Portions of the bank were lined with riprap for protection.

Other portions of the bank were lined with sandbags filled with air-pruned grasses interspersed with air-pruned trees. The sandbags hold soils in place long enough for the grass and tree root systems to become established. Then, air-pruned root systems hold soils in place and the grasses and trees provide roughness which dissipate energy.

Bank roughness from grasses and trees dissipates energy, which slows velocities and allows sediments to drop out of flow building banks instead of eroding them.

Longleaf Pine

200 years ago, longleaf pine trees covered 30 to 60 million acres of the southeastern United States Coastal Plains. Today, due to logging and development, less than 5% of those forests remain. Many native species, such as gopher tortoises, Florida mice, gopher frogs and eastern diamond-back rattlesnakes, rely on the longleaf pine ecosystem for survival and the red-cockaded woodpeckers and indigo snakes are now endangered due to the dramatic decline in this habitat.

Restoration of the longleaf pine ecosystem is a major effort with many difficulties. The largest difficulty with restoring longleaf pines is the extended time the plant spends in the grass stage. During the first 3 - 15 years, depending on competition, these plants expend almost all energy growing a long taproot and none on stem elongation. In this stage, the tree stem is only about 2-3" long and looks like a small stand of grass.

EMI is currently looking into procuring some longleaf pine seeds on which to test the air-pruning process. We have every reason to believe that this species will perform to the same standards as other EMI plants, meaning 3-5' of growth in the first seven months. This kind of growth rate could be a huge advantage for restoration projects. Planting a seedling at 3-5' would place the plant out of reach of most predators as well as above the burn height that threatens these trees during wild fires. Other basic air-pruning advantages would also apply; flood and drought resistance, early fruiting, high survivability and an earlier return of habitat for native wildlife.

Plant a Tree for Me

After finding an article that said Michael Dell spends about 2 hours a day reading and answering e-mails, I sent him a message about EMIP and the advantages to using air-pruned plants for their Plant a Tree for Me program. I never expected my message to be read much less to get a response, but I had to eat my words. Mr. Dell forwarded my e-mail to Dell's head of world wide Sustainability initiatives. The gentleman e-mailed me saying he found EMIP intriguing and was sending our information to Carbonfund.org and The Conservation Fund, the two groups responsible for planting and sustaining the trees.

Getting involved with a nationwide restoration program such as this could be just the endorsement and advertisement that EMIP and air-pruning need. It's a very exciting possibility.

Dell's Environmental Challenge

Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., announced a new program on Tuesday. The "Plant a Tree for Me" campaign allows customers to allocate $2 per laptop purchase and $6 per desktop purchase toward planting trees around the world. The trees will be planted in protected areas by environmental groups such as The Conservation Fund. "We're the first global technology company to offset emissions with the electricity of their computers," Dell said.

Large corporations are coming to realize the need for environmental restoration and the support that these efforts are getting from the public. Enterprise Rent-a-Car has also recently begun a tree planting campaign, 50 Million Trees, where 50 million trees will be planted on restoration sites over the next 50 years.

People seem to finally be acknowledging the problems that global warming is causing in our world and trying to do something about it. Planting trees is becoming increasingly popular because trees do so much for the environment. If all of these programs were planting EMIP trees, they would be producing more oxygen, absorbing more carbon dioxide (the most abundant greenhouse gas) and absorbing more nitrogen, phosphorus and other contaminants. Not to mention that EMIP trees grow faster, increasing survival rates and producing habitat, and fruit sooner, producing more food for wildlife and an increased chance of natural reproduction.

50 Million Trees in 50 Years

To celebrate it's 50th anniversary, Enterprise Rent-a-Car has partnered with the National Arbor Day Foundation to plant 50 million trees over 50 years. Each year, several restoration sites will be identified and the US Forest Service will plant and maintain a total of one million trees. Six projects were identified for restoration in 2006 from British Columbia to Alabama.

New projects for 2007 will be identified in April, giving me 4 months to convince the people in charge of the project that using EMIP trees will increase the success and effectiveness of their restorations.

Can Hurricanes Build Wetlands?

Most studies claim that hurricanes destroy wetlands, but some researchers have claimed that hurricanes Katrina and Rita dropped 130 million tons of sediment along the Louisiana Coast. If these estimates are correct, that would be 200 times the amount the river delivered before the levees prevented overflow. Wetlands need regular sediment deposits to stay healthy, but the origin of these deposits measured after the 2005 hurricane season remains unknown. The simple rearrangement of sediments from one wetland area to another is not exactly a viable restoration method.

Louisiana's coastal wetlands provide a thriving seafood industry, a percentage of the US oil and gas supply and protection to inland areas from storm surges. Despite the numerous benefits that these wetlands provide, they are continuously shrinking. Congress is considering numerous bills involving restoration efforts like diverting water from the Mississippi River and replanting cypress and other trees. Using EMIP trees for these projects would increase the chances of restoration success as air-pruned trees have a higher tolerance to flooding and produce seeds sooner for natural regeneration.

A Native American Proverb

WE DO NOT INHERIT THE ENVIRONMENT FROM OUR ANCESTORS; WE BORROW IT FROM OUR CHILDREN.
A Native American proverb.

So, why do we insist on leaving our children with nothing? A report from 2005, based on a study by 1,360 experts in 95 nations, stated that "humans are damaging the planet at an unprecedented rate and raising risks of abrupt collapses in nature that could spur disease, deforestation or "dead zones" in the seas." How many reports need to be published before people realize that this planet is in a downward spiral?

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast. With greatly diminished wetlands, the storm surges ran inland for miles almost unchecked. The logical response to this disaster is to begin reclaiming coastal areas for planting trees and restoring wetlands. Or is it? The Corps has proposed reducing and even eliminating permitting requirements for filling wetlands in the Gulf Coast to aide in rebuilding efforts. The need for so much rebuilding was exacerbated by the diminished wetlands and now they want to make it easier to fill in what is left.

I think we have already borrowed more from our children than we can ever pay back. It's time to do something different.

About EarthMark

EarthMark International Plants, Inc, EMIP, utilizes a unique process that has proven to accelerate growth and early fruiting of most plants. This air-pruning process known as EMIP (Early Maturity Inducement Process)® has had impressive initial results accelerating growth and improving survival of many species of trees. EMIP (Early Maturity Inducement Process)®, which includes the use of an organic plant supplement, increases overall hardiness and accelerates the growth of processed trees.

The core of an EMIP (Early Maturity Inducement Process)® tree's success is in its roots. These trees are grown in successively larger pots until ready for sale and planting on site. Bare root seedlings are typically planted in the ground at a nursery and allowed to grow for 1 to 3 seasons before being dug up and potted for sale. Digging up the bare root seedling cuts or tears the roots causing a period of transplant shock, which EMIP (Early Maturity Inducement Process)® trees do not experience. The EMIP (Early Maturity Inducement Process)® also causes massive production of feeder roots, which allow the tree to "believe" that it is 15 to 20 years old after one growing season. This accelerates the tree's growth, causes early nut/fruit production, gives the tree a more solid foundation once planted and provides a greatly increased ability to obtain oxygen, water and food during harsh conditions (flood or drought) during the trees early stages.


How You Can Help Save the Environment

Wetlands are among the most productive habitats on earth providing shelter and nursery areas for commercially and recreationally important animals like fish and shellfish, as well as wintering grounds for migrating birds. Louisiana contains 40 percent of the coastal wetlands in the lower 48 States and for the last 50 years has lost an average of 34 square miles a year. The 2005 hurricane season greatly intensified this loss. The change from land to water in all of coastal Louisiana from 2004 to 2005 was 118.2 square miles, almost 25% of the land loss projected to occur over a period of 50 years (2000 - 2050) by the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study.

EMIP is working with academic universities to replant marsh and wetland areas from the Louisiana Gulf Coast to the Florida Everglades. For $15.00, a tree (cypress, water oak, button brush, etc.) can be produced in a nursery, shipped to a project location and planted in a restoration project. You can help. Whether your donation is enough for a tree or a whole forest, you can do your part to protect and reclaim this vital piece of our environment.

Every cent of every donation goes directly to producing a tree.

If you would like, you can donate now.

Cypress seedlings in an EarthMark nursery greenhouse.

Cypress trees in pots at an EarthMark nursery.

How You Can Help

Wetlands are among the most productive habitats on earth providing shelter and nursery areas for commercially and recreationally important animals like fish and shellfish, as well as wintering grounds for migrating birds. Louisiana contains 40 percent of the coastal wetlands in the lower 48 States and for the last 50 years has lost an average of 34 square miles a year. The 2005 hurricane season greatly intensified this loss. The change from land to water in all of coastal Louisiana from 2004 to 2005 was 118.2 square miles, almost 25% of the land loss projected to occur over a period of 50 years (2000 - 2050) by the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study.

EMIP is working with academic universities to replant marsh and wetland areas from the Louisiana Gulf Coast to the Florida Everglades. For $15.00, a tree (cypress, water oak, button brush, etc.) can be produced in a nursery, shipped to a project location and planted in a restoration project. You can help. Whether your donation is enough for a tree or a whole forest, you can do your part to protect and reclaim this vital piece of our environment.

Every cent of every donation goes directly to producing a tree.

If you would like, you can donate now.

Cypress seedlings in an EarthMark nursery greenhouse.

Cypress trees in pots at an EarthMark nursery.