Wetland Ecology Garden

The wetland Ecology Demonstration Garden is a one acre garden that demonstrates the relationship between available soil moisture, native plant communities and wildlife. The garden design won a Land Stewardship Award from the American Society of Landscape Architectures in 2009.

The Wetland Ecology Garden at Old Canal Park consists of a wetland channel with an adjacent trail where visitors are able to learn about different types of plant zone communities and their corresponding relationship to wildlife. 

Jim Tolstrop, Executive Director of the High Plains Environmental Center states, "We hope that this garden will help those who live and work in Centerra to understand and appreciate the innovative approach to storm water management that is being implemented in their own community. Beyond that, we hope to inspire other communities and developers to view storm water ponds as a potential benefit, to conserve, even create wildlife habitat in midst of development". 

Contributions:

Fundraising goal for HPEC’s Wetland Ecology Garden set at $22,000  

Community Donation total from check/cash/credit card: $2,812  

Anonymous Matching Grant $16,500   Beanstalk Grant $3,000

Total Monetary Income: $22,312

Expenses:

Excavating/Project Design & Management $6,182.01

Irrigation $587.95

Materials (plants) $7,927.26

Contracted install $2,746.50

Boardwalk $4,061.07

Signs $316.50

Total Spent: $21,821.29

Surplus $490.71

We generously received in-kind donations from Landscape Design Group and BHA Design. Additionally Brethren Church, CSU RamServe and Intel volunteered over 1100 hours of their time to our project. Thank you all!

Testimonials from 8th grade volunteers:

"I like how you are making a wetland habitat to help plant life and wildlife. It is really interesting that all the animals that live in Colorado, 95% of them need wetlands for some of their life cycle."

"All the activities were fun but my favorite was the walk to learn about the wetlands. We got to see two frogs!"

"I loved getting to feel the wind in my face, smell all the different scents that are in the center and all of the beautiful nature. I really enjoyed the walk to the wetlands because of all the amazing landforms that were created to teach about them."

"I liked looking at all the cool plants in the wetlands. I cant believe that 90% of Colorado animals rely on this kind of environment and only 35% of Colorado contains it." 

Thanks to everyone who supported this project through financial contributions or hands on efforts. Special thanks to Beanstalk Foundation for believing in the project (and me!); for being a sounding board for ideas and offering constructive suggestions for moving this project from vision to reality. 

After the overwhelming initial success we accomplished with The Wetland Ecology Garden, we're proud to share our future vision of what is to come! With in the year we will be supplementing the original plantings and adding a Plant Select demonstration on site to expand our sustainable landscape education. Additionally, we plan to host a Wildflower Festival in June of 2011 to officially dedicate the garden, and further promote our message of plant conservation and its intrinsic value to the preservation of wildlife.