Male 1: The natural beauty and diversity of animal and plant life found in wet land makes the maintenance for life. Here in Arizona one of the rarest type of wet land is the Marsh. Marshes are trash of low, wet, soft land that is temporarily or permanently covered with water and usually characterized by aquatic grass like vegetation. When ran off from rains and snow melt this high Marsh adjures excess water until it gradually drains away. In drier periods they hold moisture even after urban bodies of water had disappeared.
Marshes helps the environment by mixing nutrients and oxygen into the water and by filtering out and neutralizing swage and toxins. For wild life, Marshes provide nutrient rich food, a thirst crunching sip of water for the rest of the place. Before as reaching the burgeon as these natural places are. The true value of a wet land goes beyond natural happenings. How much value does one place on the sure beauty of a wet land.
What is the value have a sound of a flock of mallets in the early morning or the excitement of watching a deer look for fun around the water’s edge and the blare of rush hour traffic replace the sweet drill of a humming yellow bird. To a grilling army of thousands, the answer is a resounding no. more and more of these conservation wires are putting on their glam donning floppy hats and using sweat power to assure wet lands in Marsh will be passed down to future generation.
Armed with little more than sun screen, shovels and the desire to help. Volunteers set out to create a Marsh and powers Southwest of Phoenix. Owned and operated by the Arizona game and fish department. Powers to view wild life area is situated near the Hilo River. Here, wild life is king. The task at hand convert these two acres into a Marsh. To do that, sedges will be planted, water applied and ensured order the wild life will flock in.
Phil Smith, wild life area manager talks about the types of wild life he expects to attract here.
Phil Smith: Water fall, birds, large and small wild life, they all love marshes. So this whole edge they’ll be putting in is going to be supportive of pretty much all the wild life that you can find out here.
Male 1: The first step is to mark the field in 10 foot brigs. A pre-marked line is stretched across the edges of the field, another pre-marked line is moved across the field as the line has moved, and volunteers face flags every 10 feet. Once the flags are placed, the digging begins.
Phil Smith: You think you shovel right in at the flag? And it says one shovel deep, pull that right up to the side, don’t throw it away of anything.
Male 1: While the digging is going on, the sedges need to be separated.
Phil Smith: Basically, what we’re looking for is a root ball, a bunch of plant materials, and roots. We don’t have to have a lot of dirt on it but we would like to get these roots in there. This could be a transplant right there. We’re not looking for a great big handful or big amount, we have planted down to just one stand where you're going to make them real well. So there's a transplant. We’ve got lots of those. What we need is somebody pulling off of this clamps like this and we’re going to fill the buckets up and then the buckets grow up to start getting planted.
Male 1: Working the land is a hot dusty job. But as they say, someone has got to do it. Today’s volunteers are from the Arizona game and fish department’s employees association.
Phil Smith: Most of our project completion is done through volunteers, boy scouts, Eagle Scout projects, community service groups, sports organizations, and many of them are just families that come out in one space in time and make things happen out here.
Male 1: These sedges were previously collected from Arlington ponds. Another game and fish property just down the street. With the two acres being planted today, four will have six acres completed with the capacity of another 10 acres. In addition to these marshes, the master plan calls for willing components.
Phil Smith: It has got a lot of cotton woods, some sedges that are going to transplanted around the pond and in these marsh areas. And then a lot of musket and we have seeds and the musket trees we will be bringing in and transplanted all that in the musket bosky area. So there's I think about 10 many projects to get all these accomplished to be available for somebody who is interested.
Male 1: Once the planting is complete Phil opens the flood gate and the water begins its job. Overnight, these two acres will fill and soon will have a full blown marsh to enjoy.
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