Have you ever seen a floating Island?
Imagine a quiet outfall from a large river system…the water is almost still - tules and cat tails are growing everywhere. At the waters edge and up the bank, willows and dogwoods grow creating shade and cooler temperatures for fish during the warm summer days. As the winter comes, the tules and cat tails fall, along with some of the willow and dogwood branches, creating aquatic structure.
This structure provides habitat diversity for aquatic life and surfaces for microbes to attach to. As the vegetation begins to pile up and breakdown it creates wetland-like mats of vegetation - wonderful ecosystems! As these vegetation mats continue to regrow, die back and build up, even more activity occurs within what has now become massive amounts of periphyton and mucky soil. Bio-gasses have begun to accumulate within the newly formed soil.
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This occurs from off-gassing of microbial activity…the mat comes loose from the edge and begins to float, creating a floating natural wetland! As this wetland floats, it continues to build in mass, but remains buoyant from continued microbial off-gassing. Imagine a floating island over 30 acres in size, boasting hundreds of trees 50' in height - and actually dry below the waterline! These islands float around naturally, creating habitat for fish, migratory birds, frogs, turtles, even otters. They attract nutrients and suspended solids out of the water making the water clean and clear. Due to increased development, the reduction of riparian buffer zones and increased use of pesticides and herbicides, natural floating islands occur less and less.
At Floating Islands, we have used concepts like biomimicry to study these natural models and create new sustainable technologies. Our man-made floating islands and floating wetlands, are made from recycled types 1 and 2 PET plastics, like from drinking bottles. The 'matrix' we produce, mimics the surface area provided by aquatic vegetation for microbial colonization and root growth of aquatic plants. Our islands have a very concentrated surface area - over one acre of surface area in a 250 sq. ft. island! These islands host millions of microbes, aquatic and native plant species for nutrient uptake and habitat.
Our studies led us to discover staggering numbers of fresh-water dead zones caused by increased nutrient loads form our current non-sustainable practices. The nutrient loads in our fresh water rivers and streams are one of the contributors to Marine-based dead zones, like the Gulf of Mexico. Fresh water dead zones are major contributors to algae blooms and fish kills. We have found through our on-going research that wetlands - even floating islands can be used to remediate nutrient loads and clean water without the use of chemical and high energy use treatment plants - sustainable wastewater treatment, ecologically minded water stewardships and water re-use as a conservation effort - all achieved with one tool. In addition to these wonderful benefits, floating islands can add beauty to any landscape, park or golf course, be used to build "living" boat docks, floating walkways and wildlife habitat. Imagine, using waste to rebuild, re-use, remediate and replenish…beautifully. |
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About The Author
Sean P. Dempsey: Sean's background comes mainly from his diverse experience in construction and sales. From underground directional drilling to residential tract homes and contemplative garden building. In between his construction experiences, he spent 8 years in the Semiconductor Industry working with capital equipment sales in wafer processing, which gave him a small technical background and experience in manufacturing, R&D and chemical processing. Currently, as an apprentice in both Restoration Ecology and water re-use, he leads the development of Floating Islands West and its applications and designs.
