Camassia Newsletter, March 1994
Inside Camassia
Welcome to Camassia
Welcome to Camassia (ka ma' se a), the redesigned newsletter for the west Eugene wetland partnership. We've given the former West Eugene Wetlands Newsletter a facelift and a new name to reflect a new phase in this exciting project. As you'll read in these pages, we have taken several steps toward our vision of balancing wetland stewardship and economic development in west Eugene. As a result, we have attracted an audience of regional and even national followers. We thank you for your interest.
You may wonder how we chose the newsletter name. Camassia is the Latin genus name for a wetland wildflower called small camas (Camassia quamash), which is found throughout remnant prairie wetland in west Eugene. This small, blue-flowered, spring-blooming bulb is an apt symbol for this project. Not only does camas grace our wetland meadows with its beauty each spring, but it also played a key role in the history of the local wetland landscape.
Camas bulbs provided an important food source to the native Kalapuya tribe who lived in the Willamette Valley prior to European settlement. His torical accounts tell us that the Kalapuya set fire to the wetland prairies to enhance their hunting grounds and to improve their harvest of camas bulbs. This periodic burning helped maintain the prairie nature of these wetland areas by preventing the growth of invading tree saplings. So, we are clearly not the lirst people in west Eugene to practice wetland management!
We hope you enjoy reading Camassia.
Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan Adopted
Wetland areas are an important component of Eugene's Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan, which went into effect on January 1, 1994.
The stormwater plan is a multiple-objectives approach for addressing a wide variety of stormwater related issues within a comprehensive framework.
Historically, stormwater management in Eugene has focused on drainage and flood-control objectives. The city's conventional stormwater system has quickly and efficiently conveyed runoff away from the urban area and into local channels, streams, and wetland areas. As the urban area has grown, runoff volumes have increased. This has resulted in the replacement of natural waterways with stotmwater piping and engineered, open-channel ditches.
Wetland areas play an important role in stormwater management because they store and slow the release of flood water, help improve water quality by filtering out pollutants, and support a variety of plant and animal populations, some of which are considered threatened or endangered. Portions of Amazon Creek, Delta Ponds, and Bertelsen Slough are among the wetland areas that are now recognized as important parts of Eugene's stormwater system.
It is this balance between flood control, water quality, and natural resources that the stormwater plan's goals and policies address. The initial program emphasis will be on education, identifying illicit connections to the storm system, monitoring industrial discharges, developing water-based standards for new development, and managing the west Eugene wetland system. Funding for the programs will be through a combination of stormwater user fees and, possibly, other sources of revenue still under review by the City Council.
Source: Scanned from original document.
