Conservation partners work together to enhance water quality and wildlife habitat
FRANKFORD, DE – Delaware Wild Lands (DWL) announces the restoration of 80 acres of freshwater wetlands at its 10,600 Great Cypress Swamp property. Once a low-yield agricultural field, the 80-acre “Long Field” now consists of 7 interconnected wetland cells that create a dynamic land- and waterscape. Completed just weeks ago, this project is already benefitting migratory shorebirds and waterfowl, rare and declining reptiles and amphibians, native pollinators and invertebrates, and many other species of Delaware wildlife.
Decades of historical and widespread ditching and draining of the Swamp for agriculture diverted water away degrading the integrity and function of this wetland, reducing biodiversity, and damaging habitat for migratory and resident wildlife.
Strategic earthwork and select ditch plugging completed as part of this project are diverting flood waters back into the Swamp. Swales and hummocks created through excavation connect the wetland cells and diversify the habitat and landscape features. A variety of partners contributed their expertise, funding, oversight, and design skills to make this project a great success, including The Nature Conservancy in Maryland/DC (TNC-MD), Ducks Unlimited (DU), and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS).
Over the next two years, DWL will plant 10,000 native trees and shrubs across the 80-acre “Long Field”, including Baldcypress, Atlantic white-cedar and Buttonbush. These plantings will grow into a forested wetland that, ultimately, will clean and cool the air, slow climate change through carbon sequestration, absorb rain from heavy storms to reduce flooding, provide enhanced bird and wildlife habitat, and filter harmful pollutants from groundwater supplies.
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Delaware Wild Lands (DWL) is a nonprofit conservation organization founded in 1961. We are the largest not-for-profit, non-governmental landowner in Delaware, with significant holdings in all three counties.
We protect and restore Delaware’s important natural areas by purchasing strategic parcels of land. Traditional uses of land, such as hunting, farming, and forestry are integral to our management regime and maintained as important aspects of Delaware’s economy and cultural heritage.
Our organization has played a pivotal role in the permanent protection of more than 31,600 acres of land throughout the Delmarva. Today we own and actively manage more than 21,600 acres to ensure clean air, pure water, vibrant wildlife habitat, and healthy farms and forests. www.dewildlands.org