Lois de Vries' Garden Views

In the middle of her election campaign for Township Committee, Lois took a day “off” on May 8th to head a group of volunteers who planted more than 300 bare-root shrubs during Andover Township’s Spring Detention Basin Planting Day. “Nature doesn’t wait until it’s convenient,” she said. Planting conditions were perfect: An overcast day that had been preceded by a week of rain. NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s preferred Best Management Practice for handling stormwater over large areas is the so-called Marsh Meadow Detention Basin, designed to mimic a natural wetland. They are low/no maintenance, eliminate the need for fertilizer and pesticide treatments, act as a visual and physical buffer, control erosion, act as biolfilters, and restore wildlife habitat. This year, local Girl Scouts led by Liz Kapuscinski assisted Commissioner Harvey Hummel in planting the basin at the municipal building Thanks to everyone who participated, from left: Environmental Commission Vice-Chai...

Yesterday, 13 volunteers planted 325 trees and shrubs, as well as native grasses, in 6 stormwater detention basins as part of a township-wide wetland habitat restoration program. As chair of the Andover Township Environmental Commission, this is a project very close to my heart (see http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2007/09/detention-basins-good-bad-and-ugly.html ). Directed by US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Brian Marsh, the project is a joint effort, with the federal Partners in Wildlife program providing the plants and technical assistance and the township providing the labor. Later on, the Township will plant wildflowers and perennials, and install nest boxes and interpretive signs. The Problem The purpose of the various types of stormwater basins (detention, retention, and infiltration) is to slow down runoff in areas where development has altered the natural drainage of the land. They are a common sight in residential, industrial, and commercial developments througho...

Pictured at left, my current nominee for the ugliest detention basin. Just call me Lois Jean, the Detention Basin Queen. Slowly but surely over the past three years, I’ve been making converts to my new belief system that no detention basin needs to be ugly. In case anyone forgot, I’m out to eradicate those aesthetically obnoxious stormwater collection holes from the face of the Earth! See http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2007/09/detention-basins-good-bad-and-ugly.html My ever-dependable cohort in this enterprise, Environmental Commissioner Diane Gillespie, and I have spent the past two years traipsing through wind, rain, sleet, and snow (but not the dead of night) to stare into yet another ugly hole in the ground and shoot its portrait. We’ve dragged our municipal engineer, as well as a federal biologist from hole to hole, seeking the answer to our question, “What can be done about this?” The answer is (drumroll, please) they can be converted to stormwater gardens that qualif...

In our area, stormwater sewers that serve housing developments and some businesses empty into the dreaded detention (or retention, or infiltration) basin, a visually hideous engineered method of holding large volumes of water until it can safely disperse to groundwater, natural streams, ponds, etc. (top photo). These are generally grass monocultures or rip rap which, if not properly maintained become weedy, overgrown maintenance nightmares. Suffice it to say that anyone who can get away with not maintaining one will continue to not maintain it. Frequently, the town ends up owning and maintaining such basins, meaning that all the taxpayers pay. When grass is used as the only groundcover and pesticides and fertilizers are applied, they can contaminate the runoff. Regular mowing of the basins is difficult because of the steep sides and wet floor. This maintenance adds contaminants to the watercourse, as well. Grass basins also attract undesirable wildlife, such as Canada Geese, which ...