Project Location: The proposed site is located within Sections 16 and 17, Township 100 North, Range 38 West, Dickinson County, Iowa. See attached location maps. Latitude: 43.478217 Longitude: -95.348342.
Bank Objectives: The fundamental objective of compensatory mitigation is to offset environmental losses resulting from unavoidable impacts to waters of the United States (WOTUS) authorized by Department of Army Permits. Other Objectives include: restoration of wetland hydrology in drained and degraded farmed wetland areas to the near natural condition that was present historically, re-establishment of vegetation communities dominated by native species to enhance and create wildlife habitat, establishment of high functioning and self-sustaining wetlands that improve water quality and provide flood storage in the watershed, establishment of native grass and forb species in an upland buffer area adjacent to the wetland, and provide wetland mitigation credits to sell in the Upper Missouri Bank Service Area to support the national goal of no net-loss of wetlands.
Project Description/Bank Establishment: The bank sponsor proposes to complete activities on approximately 78 acres of privately owned property that would result in the establishment of wetland mitigation credits. The bank sponsor proposes to develop credits by restoring natural hydrologic conditions and re-establishing native vegetation cover to historic wetlands at the site that have been altered by drainage and cropping. The restoration of hydrology will be accomplished by breaking or abandoning drain tile and blocking a surface drainage through the construction of an overflow berm to establish new hydrology control on the Site. The proposed restoration of wetland hydrology and vegetation will result in approximately 55 restored wetland acre-credits and 23 acres generating approximately 5 credits from the establishment of native vegetation in adjacent upland buffer. Proposed vegetation communities include emergent wetland with varying hydrologic regimes ranging from soils saturated to the surface to standing water of 2-4 ft depths. A wetland determination was completed in 2020 which identified the entire site as Prior Converted Cropland (PC), indicating wetland hydrology was removed for the purposes of cropping prior to 1985 and there are no areas meeting wetland criteria on the site under the existing condition. A wetland delineation will be conducted prior to the submission of the mitigation banking instrument.
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