Over the last three years, faculty at Syracuse University have partnered with colleagues at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York to study the outcomes of wetland restoration efforts along the St. Lawrence River in northern New York.

Their work — titled “Wetlands for Wildlife: Understanding Drivers of Public-Private Partnership Restoration Success” and funded by a grant from the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan — explores the effectiveness of public-private partnerships in which the government works with landowners to restore or create wetlands on private property.

The researchers were divided into several teams, each investigating a different aspect of the wetland restoration program. A team of David Chandler, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at SU, and Michael Twiss, a limnologist at Clarkson University, studied the differences between natural and restored or constructed wetlands in terms of hydrology, which explores the patterns of water flow and water quality.

Chandler and Twiss, along with Kyotaek Hwang, a doctoral student in the department of civil and environmental engineering at SU, discovered that restored wetlands experience a greater seasonal variation in water level. The water in restored wetlands tends to have a higher concentration of solutes and a higher pH than water in natural wetlands, according to a report provided by Tom Langen of Clarkson University, who was also one of the principal investigators of the study.

Hwang said these differences in water quality had little to do with whether a wetland was reconstructed or natural, and more to do with where the wetland was located. According to the report, this disparity may have something to do with the desirability of these wetlands’ locations.

Farmers avoid using land that has acidic soil, Hwang said, so wetlands located in areas of acidic soil were likely to be left alone and remain more natural. The wetlands in areas with more alkaline, nutrient-dense soil were more often converted into farmland and then later reconstructed.

A second group, led by Langen, investigated the impact of reconstructed wetlands on biodiversity, or the variety of different plant and animal species that inhabit a particular location.

Langen’s team found, according to the biodiversity indicators they studied, that reconstructed wetlands provide a healthy environment for a wide array of flora and fauna and serve as a useful tool to protect threatened or endangered species and prevent plentiful ones from becoming endangered.

Rick Welsh, chair of the department of public health, food studies and nutrition at SU’s David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and also a co-principal investigator for this study, headed yet another team of researchers. Welsh surveyed participants in the wildlife restoration projects, gathering information about their demographics, their motives for participation and their attitudes toward the projects after completion.

Langen said Welsh’s team found the landowners they surveyed tended to be older, often near retirement, and that they were frequently concerned with “heritage … (and) leaving something natural … to (their) descendants.” He also said the landowners were usually satisfied with the decision to reconstruct wetlands on their property.

A final segment of the study, led by co-principal investigator Martin Heintzelman, an associate professor of economics and financial studies at Clarkson University, investigated the economic impacts of the wetland restoration projects in terms of their effects on property value — both for the participants and for their neighbors.

This group concluded, according to the findings report, that “wetland acreage has a positive and statistically significant effect on property values” in the region. The report states it does not seem to matter whether the wetlands were natural or restored — landowners seem to value the benefits provided by wetlands of any kind.

Langen said the next step for the researchers is to study similar wetland restoration projects in other regions, such as the Hudson River Valley, and study what happens to the restored wetlands once the original owner passes away or sells the property.

“Long term, if these programs are going to be sustainable, you have to have people who are interested in sustaining them,” Langen said.

Published on October 25, 2016 at 11:56 pm

Contact Madeleine: mdavison@syr.edu