WATERWAY AND LOCATION: The project would affect waters of the United States (WOTUS) associated with the Edwards River, Donohue Run, and adjacent wetlands. The center of the site is located approximately 1.01-miles northwest of the intersection of US Highway 67 and 115th Avenue in Section 34, Township 15 North, Range 02 West; at Latitude 41.244083 and Longitude -90.599531; near the city of Matherville, Mercer County, Illinois.
EXISTING CONDITIONS: The site primarily consists of undeveloped land along the Edwards River and Donohue Run. The southeastern portion of the site is currently used for agricultural production.
PROJECT PURPOSE/BANK OBJECTIVES: The fundamental objective of compensatory mitigation is to offset environmental losses resulting from unavoidable impacts to WOTUS authorized by Department of the Army Permits. Other objectives include: restoration and enhancement of wildlife habitat, restoration and increase of aquatic resource functions lost from anthropogenic activities, increase of public resource functions, values, and resource stewardship awareness, reduction of sediment and nutrient loading, and the restoration of floodplain connectivity.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION/BANK ESTABLISHMENT: The bank sponsor proposes to complete activities on 145-acres of property along the Edwards River that would result in the establishment of both stream and wetland mitigation credits. The mitigation plan for the project will focus on enhancing and establishing restoration types by reconnecting hydrology across the site, increasing diversity of the plant communities, and removing invasive species. The wetland mitigation design includes enhancement of existing degraded wetland, re-establishment of historic wetland, stream and riparian restoration, and establishment of a vegetated wetland buffer habitat along the site boundary. The sponsor proposes to use many different methods to aid in stream restoration, including selectively reshaping channel banks, construction of beaver dam analogs, and riparian vegetation management. The project will generate an estimated 18,804 stream mitigation credits along with a combined forested and emergent wetland amount of 88.5 credits.
SERVICE AREA: The proposed bank service area will be the Western Service Area in Illinois.
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