Hy there, this is Gary, the creator of Swampy! For those of you who have followed Swampy over the past 14 years and for new visitors to my Web site, I say welcome! It has been an interesting 14 years! I have had a great opportunity to meet many wetland professionals nationally, such as Bill Mitsch at The Ohio State University (see The Olentangy River Wetland Research Park), Curtis Richardson at Duke University (see Duke University Wetland Center) Charlie Newling (see Wetland Training Institute) Jan Keough, Ralph Tiner, Bill Sipple, Val Glooschenko, Kel Wieder and many others. It has always been interesting to talk with wetland-interested folk from academia, local, state, federal agencies, industry and environmental organizations as well as landowners and youth interested in wetlands and streams.

Recently, I completed over 2 years with my local urban county government. It was interesting to see from a local government standpoint, how they viewed residential, commercial and industrial development within a more urban context (as was emphasized in a 2001 SWS conference at the Congress Inn in Chicago, IL on urban wetland and stream health).

Here in Lexington, we live in the Bluegrass, an area of karst topography and home to the Horse Capital of the World! A primary concern of our local community has to do with the preservation of agricultural areas and is the home to many prominent horse farms. My recent emphasis has been on the urban environment and planning. I am currently attempting to earned my lanner certification with the American Institute of Certified Planners (see http://www.planning.org).

My most recent goal has been to find a way to do Swampy full-time. If you have any experiences in this area, I would enjoy hearing from you! I have a passion for wetlands and my greatest dream would be to work with professionals at different levels and with the public in general on ways to raise environmental education awareness of wetlands & watersheds, assist in the creation and restoration of wetlands and minimize disturbance to wetlands, where possible. I have a special e-mail for this initiative and can be reached at gary@swampy.org

Thank you for taking the time to visit my site! I am trying to spend more time on this site and continue to look for ways to provide information that you can use.

Hydricly Yours,

Swampy

Gary 'Swampy' Hahn, PWS

388 Ashmoor Drive

Lexington,KY 40515

(859) 492-8377

Welcome aboard & join the SWAMPYexpress!