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Ruffner Mountain Nature Center is an amazing place, not 5 minutes from intense urban development lies a stretch of land that encompasses mountain to marshland with an extensive trail system throughout. I live nearby and to be invited to work here was an honor for me. I grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by old farmland and stone strewn woods so to work in this place was a little like coming home for me. The first project i was involved with was to address the landscape at the front of the center. A steep slope had been left with little cover no native vegetation and no plan for drainage coming off the mountain. The key to stopping erosion is slowing the surface water and I proposed to do this by using as many obstacles as i could. The first order of business was to identify where the water was traveling. Once i did this i marked out where my obstacles would go. I wanted the structures to look as natural as possible so i used logs, sandstone and leaf mould to create them. I also utilized a coir log which is a wood fiber filled sock that filters storm water runoff it also slows the water down some imbedding these within my stone and wood structures. A channel was cut at the 'toe' of the slope, it is the place at the bottom of a slope or stream bank where the grade changes to a flatter surface. By excavating this channel i created a berm or soil mound on the downhill side making a stream bed which was lined with stone boulders and logs. The water will enter this and move laterally again slowing it down. There were several piles of stone that were acting as deflectors for runoff from the green roof. I added about 1/2 ton to each making them more effective. In all 16 tons of stone was used. The finishing touches were 3 truckloads of leaf mulch that will help soak up storm water and allow native plants a chance to re-colonize and several hundred native plants from volunteers, some dug from the woods nearby. With all this in place the landscape will heal and in time create the smooth transition from built environment to nature made. Please visit there website for more info http://www.ruffnermountain.org/home.html
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| Rain Garden My next task was to address the serious erosion problem that ocurred during rain events from parking lot runoff. With impervious surfaces water flows unhindered and gains velocity, collects pollutants and when it enters the landscape it can cause damage or flow into our streams and rivers further degrading the environment. Rain gardens are good at solving several of these problems. They first slow the water down allowing silt and pollutants to settle some. The vegetation they contain, especially if native to the region and adapted to wet conditions, will further soak up water and reduce the downstream flow. The water contained also seeps into the soils passively watering the plantings. After locating the main flow of water I decided to create a swale and berm system that would catch and direct the water laterally into a larger basin. At the exit point I placed a log cross wise to again act as a break and small waterfall before entering the drain tiles. downhill from this i placed more logs and rocks in a zigzag pattern with coir logs embedded within. A smaller basin is at the bottom of the water course as a final stopping point before exiting the property. I installed a few plants i knew would do well in this situation, swamp dogwood a native to streambanks and swamps, juncus also a wetland native, witchhazels that grow into small trees enjoy having wet feet. The final touches here were applied during our Rain Garden work shop taught by Michelle Reynolds and myself, where we took our lessons outside and planted the rest of the rain garden with perennials and grasses suited to the edge and a few more wetland species within the basin. The plants had to be watered some through our Alabama summer which gets hot and dry but over time the rain garden will fill out and be a nice asset to the campus at Ruffner.
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