Welcome to The STEM Sessions podcast. I am Jarl Cody the Smither, your host and narrator.
I’m fortunate to live close to several wetlands; close enough I can easily visit for walks and bird watching when I have a free hour. One of these wetlands is truly an urban wetland. Its surrounded by a golf course, residential neighborhoods, and a city park. Its link to the ocean is an underground channel that allows tidal water to enter and exit the wetlands.
For many years, the city has been restoring this area in phases. Non-native plants have been replaced with native ones. Use trails have been replaced with graded trail beds. Benches and interpretive signage have been installed.
Shortly after a newly restored section opened to the public, I paid this wetlands a visit. And being a sucker for interpretive signage, I spent a fair amount of time reading text and studying diagrams.
A focus of one of the signs was the newly constructed bioswale, located between the wetlands and the golf course. The all-to brief explanation left me curious for further details. How are bioswales designed? How do they do what they do? Upon returning home, I sought to answer those questions and more.
This is The STEM Sessions Podcast – Episode One. Bioswales: More Than a Ditch
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