Leave it to Mother Nature!

December 23, 2011 Posted by: Candice Larussa

During the midsummer heat, as the buzzing of insects was drowning out the incessant drone of cars on Johnson Ferry Road, CRNRA received a phone call from Colonial Pipeline regarding the wetland located at the closed parking lot at Johnson Ferry South.   If you haven't been out there lately, the flooding of 2009 created an amazing wetland. In 2 years' time this area has transformed from a dry, gravel wasteland of briars, overgrown fescue, and horseweed into a thriving wetland with beaver, herons, mergansers, and scores of frogs.

Wetland at Johnson Ferry unit.Colonial was concerned that the wetland waters were covering the control valve for the natural gas pipeline that runs underneath Johnson Ferry South and supplies the region with this valuable commodity. The water was three feet deep and, in the event of an emergency, would prevent ready access to the control valve. The issue couldn't be ignored without compromising the safety of the pipeline.

In order to reduce the water level in the wetland, existing canals were opened and a new one dug to drain the water covering the valve; the wetland didn't have to be dry, just shallow enough for the flat orange top to be observed from a surveillance plane and to enable an operator to walk to it.

SRM has been monitoring the water quality just downstream for the past 3 years so we knew that there was an old shut-off valve for an abandoned farm pond just below this site. So with help from Colonial, we plugged it, and allowed this area to receive most of the water drained from the upper site.  Voila! A new wetland complex was born.

Last updated: April 14, 2015

Park footer

Contact Info

Mailing Address:

1978 Island Ford Parkway
Sandy Springs, GA 30350

Phone:

678-538-1200
Call 770-992-6585 for non-emergency law enforcement assistance for any event that does not pose a direct threat to the health and safety of visitors or employees. Examples of when to call 770-992-6585 are for property crime (car break-ins, vandalism), suspicious activity, or a threat to the park's resources (digging). Dial 911 when there is a direct threat to the health and safety of visitors or employees. Examples of when to dial 911 are for missing person, fire, physical altercation, or injury.

Contact Us