This is a true design/build workshop!
The Swamp School is pleased to announce a new workshop to be held in conjunction with The Vernal Pool Society of Virginia. It is entitled, "What's Wrong With My Wetland!" This week long class will prepare you to diagnose and understand how a wetland should function as well as ways to improve wetland projects in peril. We will discuss various ecological functions and how to promote uplift of these functions. In addition we will also show you how to prepare a detailed water budget for your project. In an idealized situation if these protocols were followed, a pretty successful wetland would result. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. So the next thing we will discuss is how to take apart an existing wetland project to identify what might not be working. Sometimes this is the water budget. Sometimes it is an issue with conflicting goals. Sometimes it is just something dumb. Our forensic approach will highlight what could be fixed to restore the design back to its intended functions. But here is the best part! On Friday we will build the wetland we have designed! This class not only shows you how to prepare the design in a workshop setting, but we will put it in the ground. Our partner, The Vernal Pool Society of Virginia has identified a terrific location to put what you have learned into a very practical application. We are going to build a vernal pool! This class includes a combination of lecture, field inspections, hands on design and functional assessments. At the end of the class students will have designed a wetland using a functional approach, develop a water budget, prepare an analysis of a number of successful and poorly functioning wetlands and build a vernal pool. This is about as hands on as you can get! Join us in September for a terrific week in the wetlands! The class is being offered at: Sweet Briar College Sweet Briar, Virginia From: September 19 - 23, 2011 For more information or to sign up please visit http://WWWMW.org or call 1-877-479-2673. Thanks, Marc Seelinger The Swamp School
