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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Muskegon River Valley, (read swamp).

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  • From: SALTMINES@aol.com
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc: SALTMINES@aol.com, TheStarNav@aol.com
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Muskegon River Valley, (read swamp).
  • Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:38:51 EDT

In a message dated 3/15/2007 2:17:17 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, zdomike@yahoo.com writes:
Zack,
I appreciate the input. 
 
About flooding: this will be our 3rd Spring here and our section has not been flooded yet.  We have a neighbor down river who has to canoe from house to his parked vehicles when the 'Dam' people upriver release excess during high water (snow melt, April showers).  Our flat 5 acres are elevated about 40'  to 60' above the bottom land.  Our creek that runs through our lower section is runoff/drainage from fields to the north which are used for pasture and hay making (no unnatural chemicals that I know of).
 
Also, neighbors on both sides log their 'swamp' land, call it woodlot management.  The bottom land I'm talking about is 20'  or so higher than actual river height, and probably hasn't been flooded since the glaciers carved it out. Neighboring farms grow crops on the same level but there it has been cleared for over a century, flooding is from runoff on the way to the river, not the river rising to it.   If the water ever gets that high, entire communities up and down the river would be devastated I think.
 
Also, along the hillside to the bottomland the land 'weeps' constantly as the fields are drained.  The hillsides have a fantastically rich crop of skunk cabbage and trillium in the blackest, richest soil I've ever seen, totally full of life. That soil has to have migrated to the lower section.  I'm going to explore it thoroughly now that the snow cover is going away, check out the high spots for sites. 
 
Your advice is encourage ring!  Thanks.
 
Stephen (Western Michigan) 
 
 
Hi Stephen,
I have some opinions about swamp land.  First of all,
it is part of the Muskegon River, when flooded, so
anything you work on there is temporary!

Secondly, the EPA, Army Corps of Engineers, and
various other agencies have jurisdiction over your
land.

Third, I think you could grow a raised bed.  , make a
ring of willows-in-soil now, hope they withstand the
spring floods, and watch the soil stick to that over
the summer.  In a year, you could heap mud and trunks
into the  ring of willow, and plant in 2008.

There must be a dozen different swamp-tolerant trees
besides willows, but maybe the government has no
jurisiction over trees . . .

Hope that is helpful,
Zack

Of raised beds, one half of my property is five acres
of Muskegon River  Valley, (read swamp).  I have been
blessed with the top five arable acres  and am working
to restore them to a productive state. 
But I guess I'm greedy because I keep thinking of the
Chiampas and  how I could reclaim some of that rich,
black soil in the swamp for  growing. It is out of the
question to make  raised beds 300 feet  long as the
Indians did (I don't have a nation of unlimited
manpower  at my beck, just these two hands) but am
considering a small clearing  or two and heaping of
the muck/soil onto them to  experiment.

An incentive for me to get into it is several veneer
grade trees that  might be harvested to help fund the
project and gain an easier entrance to the  area. 

Was wondering if you (or anyone here) has experience
with this sort of   thing?

Stephen (Western Michigan) 
 
 




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