The foundation for that legacy was laid down in a time even before human activity: the time when the vast coalfields of the Cumberland Plateau were created. Formed during the Pennsylvanian Period around 300 million years ago, these coalfields originated from vast lowland swamps full of plant and animal life that ultimately died and settled into deposits of organic matter. Over time, these deposits were compressed and transformed into the highly-combustible coal deposits that form the basis of the central Appalachian economy today.
The site where The Wetlands now sits was once farm land. The farm was not successful, and the land was sold to Wise County for the Poor Farm. On the side of the hill currently behind Martha Randolph Hall, portals were made to get house coal for the farmhouse, now Crocket Hall. This may have been the first mining done on site, but no records exist to tell precisely when these portals were made.
Commercial mining on the site began in the late 1890’s in the form of deep mining, which uses tunnels or shafts to access coal seams located deep underground, usually beneath deposits of sandstone or shale. This process was still going on in surrounding properties when the college was first established.
Surface mining operations were conducted around the site of The Wetlands, starting before the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and continuing up to the 1980’s. In contrast to deep mining, surface mining simply removes the layers of rock that overlie coal seams, exposing the coal to the surface and dramatically altering the landscape. The legacy of these mining operations can still be seen around campus, not only in the orange sediment coming into the Wetlands, but in reclaimed sites in the backside of the property.
Surface mining has several unintended effects that can negatively impact local ecosystems. Most dramatically, the removal of vegetation for extracting coal removes the natural buffer that typically keeps sediment from running directly into local streams. Instead, sediment "sheets" more easily off of bare, exposed rock strata and steep hillsides (think of heavy rainfall on a parking lot), ultimately entering local streams and the rivers that they ultimately flow into.
Without the presence of wetlands to capture water containing this sediment, allowing it to settle out by slowing the stream's flow, runoff from abandoned mines on the UVa-Wise campus would eventually reach the Guest River by way of Yellow Creek, a small stream that flows through downtown Wise. Allowing the wetlands to capture this sediment before it leaves campus therefore keeps the Guest River and its downstream destination, the Clinch River, a bit cleaner.
The Wetlands even has more immediate, local impacts directly on the UVa-Wise campus. Another side effect of surface mining is drainage containing contaminants such as iron and sulfur into local streams. Many streams in southwest Virginia run orange to red, for example, due to the presence of these exposed, "pyritic" rocks upstream.
The Wetlands Project began as an effort to remediate the impacts on the UVa-Wise campus resulting from intensive industrial mining on campus throughout the 1900s. From the beginning, all the individuals involved with the Wetlands Project saw an opportunity to transform an environmental liability into a learning environment by providing educational opportunities for the students and citizens of southwest Virginia.
Permission for and assistance in developing this EarthCache was given by the Department of Natural Sciences at The University of Virginia's College at Wise.
From information found at the wetlands email me answers to the following questions:
1. What negative effect did the removal of coal have on this site?
2. What geological material was used in the channels that connect the four ponds?
3. What watershed does water from the wetlands flow into?
You are welcome to post photos of your visit to the site, but this is optional and not part of the logging requirements.
FTF HONORS GO TO KickenChicken !!!
(Permission for this EarthCache given by the Department of Natural Sciences at The University of Virginia's College at Wise.)