34 Nebraskaland • June 2020
located just north of Lincoln on Salt
Creek. The restoration began in
2016 when contractors scraped 1 to
2 feet of sediment out of two oxbow
wetlands on the site until reaching the
original salty topsoil. Ditches draining
the wetlands were plugged and
trenches were dug just upslope of the
marshes' upper perimeters to prevent
freshwater runoff from entering them.
Most creatively, saline groundwater
was being pumped into the wetlands
to restore salinity levels. Curious, I had
to see the project.
On a cold, windy day in early March,
I visited Marsh Wren with Schulz and
Tom Malmstrom, natural resources
coordinator for the City of Lincoln.
Between them, they have decades of
experience restoring wetlands. They
fi rst showed me the two electric wells
that pump salt water from depths of
about 200 feet. Located at the upper
ends of each wetland was a 900-
foot length of gated irrigation pipe
that slowly disperses the water into
the wetlands. Schulz explained how
gravel-fi lled trenches located next to
the pipes allowed some salt water to
immediately enter the soil, providing
for both subsurface and surface fl ow of
the water through the marshes.
Pumping of salt water at Marsh
Wren began in late summer of 2017
A salt crust forms around raccoon tracks in a drying saltfl at at Arbor Lake wetland.
These fl ats not only support saltwort, but are also habitat for the rare Salt Creek
tiger beetle and act as excellent foraging sites for migrating water birds.
PHOTO
BY
GERRY
STEINAUER
PHOTO
BY
GERRY
STEINAUER
