It’s been a while since I’ve been writing, between a two year old, a bird dog, kitchen remodel and work my focus has been everywhere and nowhere. A heavy afternoon monsoon today reminded me it’s probably about to time to sit down and write and tie some flies. So, we will see how much of this is written before the fly table’s call is louder than the keyboard.

I had the chance to work on a wet meadow restoration down the street from my house. A series of headcut had dried the meadow out and the pond just below it was suffering from the decreased ground water. In a typical year the pond fills in the winter and is dry by monsoons. As we were taking a walk this morning a pack of kids from the street were headed to the pond to catch minnows and water dogs and it reminded me of the project. Their Huck Fin style adventure reminded me that wetland restorations show success in so many ways. From the baby mallards that grew up this summer to the red-winged blackbirds I can just about hear if the windows are open. Even the pack of neighborhood 10 year olds that are looking for critters in the swamp. So from a dried out meadow to a swamp I’ll let these photos take you on a two year journey from headcut to habitat.

Restoration takes many forms and happens at many scales. It gives me hope to see that even such a small project (a few acres) can create an oasis of habitat in the community. As always nature amazes me with just how quickly it can bounce back if all we give it is a little helping hand. To end it I’ll give one more series of photos from about the same spot as time goes on. I wish we could take credit for it all but as I said before we gave in about 10% and the water and plants did the rest. Now the fly table calls so let’s see if I can’t make something worth casting.