Fontenelle Forest Wetlands - The End of the Beginning

For tens of thousands of year water has ruled over the wetlands that now comprise part of Fontenelle Forest.  Spring floods could quickly alter the landscape.  We know they even moved the Missouri River because a couple of these moves left small lakes in the wetlands.  These changes happened quickly.  The river flooded for a few days and portions of the wetlands ended up on either the east or west side of the Missouri.  The wetlands quickly recovered from these floods - most of the vegetation could withstand the brief immersion.

When the sides of the river became Iowa and Nebraska, man tamed the river.  It was straightened so it is now many miles shorter.  Dams were built to capture the extra spring water. Levees were built so the river cannot escape its banks during the regular seasonal changes.  The fortifications were designed to stop even the greatest amount of water that could be imagined - the "hundred year floods".  The system worked - the hundred year flood of 2010 was largely contained.

2011 was different.  The dams intended to store the surplus spring water were already full  so that the lakes they created could provide maximum recreation and a constant supply of electricity.  The silt that had given the Missouri it's "Muddy Missouri" title had been collecting behind the dams and had reduced the water that they could hold.  Record amounts of snowfall in the north meant that the spring thaw would produce another hundred year flood.

By the time that officials realized what was happening, it was too late to let the dams do their job.  When the dams were filled nearly to their busting point, all the remaining surplus water was sent rushing downstream.  The levees kept the water from causing temporary flooding along the banks, so any severe flooding was moved south until it reached the point of least resistance.  While they deny it, it is evident that officials decided that the farms of southern Iowa and Nebraska were a better place to flood than anywhere near their own homes.  So the wall of water came and if these levees didn't break naturally, the officials made sure that it happened anyway.

The muskrats and beavers in the Fontenelle Forest wetlands don't vote so their homes were included in the expendable area.  The resulting flood was longer and deeper than anything this area had ever experienced.  The wetlands were covered in the spring and remained covered until fall.  Trees and wildlife that could have adapted to a shorter flood were wiped out.

Plants and animals weakened by the flooding  were immediately subjected to a Nebraska winter.  March arrived to a bleak landscape containing very few living plants and animals. 

I'm confident that this is the beginning of regeneration.  Spring will be the first chance for the plants to begin to grow again.  Insects will return and the birds will stop for a bite eat on their way north.  Animals that eat plants will start to reappear soon to be followed by the carnivores that eat them.  The bleak landscape marks the beginning.  March has been unusually mild so conditions are soon right for seeds to begin to sprout and shoots and leaves will soon appear.