Project Titles:

• Replace Water Control Structure in Impoundment #16 (FFS #R4JU)
• Dredge Ditch (FFS #R4JV)

State: Georgia

Initial Project Description:The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS, the Service) will use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) funds to purchase and install a new rice field trunk to control tidal flooding of the rice fields at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Georgia.

The Service awarded a $97,518 Recovery Act contract to Specpro Environmental Services of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the purchase and installation of the new rice field trunk and associated bulkhead.

According to Jane Griess, Project Leader at the Savannah Coastal Refuges Complex, “[Rice field trunks are] expensive to build and install, but they last much longer than normal water control structures. In this marine salt water environment, metal structures don’t hold up as well as wooden ones.”

In addition, the Service awarded Specpro Environmental Services $85,038 in Recovery Act funds to remove vegetation and silt from canals on the refuge, which will restore them to their original capacity. That work will include Specpro removing invasive woody vegetation from the banks of the canals.

The refuge has 6,000 acres of impoundments for migratory waterfowl and other native wildlife, and manages water flow on 3,000 of those acres. In the summer months, the refuge staff grows plants on the wetlands. The staff then floods the wetlands in the fall, in anticipation of wintering ducks’ arrival, and keeps the impoundments flooded during the winter months.

September 2011 Project Update: Specpro Environmental Services completed the installation of a new rice field trunk in July 2010. According to Refuge Manager, Russell Webb, “The project allowed the refuge to gain water control on approximately 200 acres of managed wetlands. This will ultimately benefit migratory waterfowl by improving habitats.”

In addition, Specpro Environmental Services also completed a project to clear silt and debris from a primary water distribution channel, benefitting an additional 400 acres of managed wetlands. The project, completed in July 2011, also removed the invasive Chinese tallow tree from approximately three miles of dikes.

For more information visit the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge website. 

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Originally posted 02/02/2010
Page Completed 09/13/2011