PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #22: Fish, Lakes, Streams and Wetlands.
Tuesday, August 6. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Biologs - A method for creating shoreline habitat.

Munroe, Kevin^*,1, ¹ Reston Association, Reston, VA

ABSTRACT- Most urban and suburban communities have one or more storm water detention ponds or lakes. These human-made bodies of water can be sterile, barren landscapes with little more than algae and a few misplaced ducks or they can be reservoirs of biodiversity. Reston Association, one of the largest homeowner associations in the country is responsible for managing over eight-hundred acres of protected parkland in a Virginia suburb. Over the last few years they have turned several of their ponds into thriving, native ecosystems. Biologs (tightly packed rolls of coconut fiber and twine) have been placed in the water along the pond edge and planted with a variety of emergent aquatics to create much needed shoreline habitat. The result is a rich "ecotone" full of plants, birds, insects, herps and fish. Interspersed around the biologs are bird boxes, wildlife brush shelters and a mosaic of small meadows and reforestation plots transforming a small detention pond into a magnet for local wildlife.

KEY WORDS: biologs, shoreline, ponds, habitat