This is the area
that we are dealing with in particular the section on the right when it
was still planted to sugar cane before the start of development. As you
can see there
is a well defined herring bone drainage system with a very deep central
drainage ditch that has been dug to lower the water table in the
wetland area so as to allow the growing of sugar cane
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This is how the
wetland looked in 2007
after the cane had been removed, looking from the top end of the
wetland downhill towards the still intact swamp forest on the adjoining
property. In this photo you can very clearly see the deep central
drainage ditch and the completely dried out wetland basin.
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What you can see here is one of the herring bone side drainage ditches
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What you can see here is a small section of the central drainage
ditch
which has been partially closed and has collected a little water
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Here you can see the first of two locations where the central drainage
ditch has been filled in to bring the water table up to the original
level before the herring bone drainage was installed to drain the
wetland so as to enable the growing of sugar cane.
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Here you can see the second of two locations where the central drainage
ditch has been filled in to bring the water table up to the original
level before the herring bone drainage was installed to drain the
wetland so as to enable the growing of sugar cane.
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The results are very clear to be seen from this photograph, it can be
clearly seen that the water table in the entire wetland basin is back
to where it was before drainage measures were taken so as to enable the
growing of sugar cane
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Here you can clearly see the small but steady flow of crystal clear
water flowing past the second of the two plugs in the central drainage
ditch into the lower section of the wetland and on into the swamp
forest on the adjoining property. Trees that have already been planted
in this lower portion of the wetland have already benefited from the
increase in the water table as well as the constant supply of water.
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In no time at all vast numbers of wetland plant species
have begun to re-colonised this wetland followed by vast numbers of of
other forms of aquatic wildlife. The most obvious new species that are
to be seen are the birds although many such as the little bitterns do
not go out of their way to make themselves seen.
This is an ongoing project so more information and photos will be added
to this page as they become available
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