WATERWAY AND LOCATION: The project would affect waters of the United States (WOTUS) associated with wetlands located within the project area of approximately 114 acres approximately 0.2 miles northeast of the Cedar River and 5 miles west of the city of Wilton within Section 31, Township 79 North, Range 2 West, Latitude 41.60218, Longitude -91.11911, Cedar County, Iowa.
EXISTING CONDITIONS: The “Land of the Swamp White Oak (LOTSWO)” site primarily consists of undeveloped land currently owned by The Nature Conservancy, with Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) having intentions of acquiring the property. The 114-acre parcel is surrounded by forest, upland, wetlands, ponds, and agricultural land. Iowa DOT proposes the LOTSWO site as the first addendum under its Umbrella Mitigation Banking Instrument (UMBI). Any future proposed mitigation bank sites will be included as additional addendums with corresponding public notices.
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. The purpose of the UMBI is to establish the framework for restoring, creating, enhancing, and/or preserving resources (e.g., wetlands, riparian systems, streams, contiguous buffer corridors, uplands, and/or other aquatic resources) and their functions and values, as may be approved by the IRT, to compensate for unavoidable and permitted waters of the U.S. WOTUS impacts.
Establishment of mitigation bank sites under an UMBI will provide a means of developing mitigation for permitted unavoidable impacts to WOTUS. Potential, future mitigation bank needs will be identified and developed in watersheds where impacts are most anticipated. This will provide an inventory of compensatory mitigation credits prior to permitted impacts, which will decrease or eliminate temporal losses of valuable ecologic functions that occur after impacts.
The Bank Sponsor’s goals in establishing the UMBI include:
- Streamlining Clean Water Act Sections 404/401 and Rivers and Harbors Act Section 10 permit evaluation processes by providing compensation for unavoidable wetland, stream, water quality, etc., impacts resulting from Iowa DOT improvement projects.
- Providing high function and value, compensatory mitigation based on a watershed approach.
- Restoring and preserving aquatic and semi-aquatic resources based on environmental priorities and relative probability of successfully achieving self-maintaining ecological uplift.
- Supporting mitigation priorities established in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) / Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Mitigation Rule (33 CFR Part 332 and 40 CFR Part 230) and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (Iowa DNR).
- Achieving efficiencies for cooperating State of Iowa agency permit applicants and the entire IRT review process by eliminating repetitive practices and redundant review processes, thereby reducing costs, and addressing permitting priorities in a more expedient time frame.
Objectives specific to the LOTSWO mitigation bank site include:
- Support the national goal of no net loss of wetlands.
- Enhance existing natural areas and create additional wildlife habitat.
- Compensate for wetland losses in a manner which contributes to the long-term ecological functioning of the watershed within which the bank is located.
- Reduce temporal loss of wetland functions.
- Restore and enhance water quality and habitat within the Cedar River floodplain.
- Support the State of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy to reduce nutrients in surface water from both point and nonpoint sources in a scientific, reasonable, and cost-effective manner.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION/BANK ESTABLISHMENT: The Iowa DOT proposes to develop an UMBI to establish a framework and eliminate redundancy in administration as individual bank sites are added facilitating the focus of review on technical issues related to the development, implementation and success of individual mitigation bank sites as they are added. Mitigation credits generated will be generated on a site-specific basis, as approved by the IRT, and may be used as compensatory mitigation for jurisdictional impacts within the mitigation site-specific service area. Credits will be generated using a combination of restoration, creation, enhancement, and preservation of aquatic resources (wetlands and/or streams) and uplands for the purpose of generating compensatory mitigation credits under the Clean Water Act Sections 404/401 and the Rivers and Harbors Act Section 10. The Bank Sponsor proposes to manage the development, release, and use of mitigation credits under the proposed UMBI with approval by the IRT.
On the Land of the Swamp White Oak site, bank sponsor proposes to establish a mitigation bank on approximately 114-acres that would result in the generation of emergent and forested wetland compensatory mitigation credits.
The goal of this project is to restore 10.17-acres of emergent and 1.61-acres of forested wetland, enhance 37.17-acres of emergent and 21.51-acres of forested wetland, and establish 36.03-acres of buffer to generate an initial estimate of 50.14 wetland credits.
The Sponsor proposes to conduct approximately 11.78-acres of wetland restoration/creation, 58.68-acres of wetland enhancement, and 36.03 acres of upland buffer enhancement. It is their belief that adequate hydrology/natural flow regime relevant to the system under consideration can be restored permanently through a combination of ditch plugging and minor grading. The proposed work is expected to restore hydrology and increase inundation to areas of hydric soils that were historically altered through ditching and impacts of agricultural activities. Restoration of the natural hydrology should also expand what is left of the existing emergent wetland. Existing wetlands will also be enhanced through native plantings and may also benefit from increased inundation of the site resulting from ditch plugging and grading. Additional hydrologic assessment of the site will be conducted prior to submittal of the mitigation banking instrument.
Construction is anticipated to involve primarily ditch plugging and grading, as needed (0.5 – 2.0 foot deep). The site will be restored with plantings and erosion control techniques appropriate for the climate and drainage conditions. Additional information on construction techniques and approaches will be determined through more detailed assessment and design work prior to submitting the mitigation banking instrument.
Restored and existing wetlands will be revegetated with native species. Plantings will include both woody and herbaceous species. Wetland planting will focus on herbaceous wet prairie species with a scattering of oak plantings (50 feet on center spacing). All wetland areas will be protected with a buffer that is suitable for site conditions. In some locations the buffer would extend beyond 100 feet to the property line. Upland areas currently in open land use will be planted with an upland prairie seed mix with interspersed tree planting. Existing pond areas (1.4 acres) will be credited as buffer restoration, unless it is determined during feasibility assessment that these ponds have potential for wetland restoration/enhancement credit. Target community types and detailed planting plans will be determined during feasibility assessment and development of the mitigation design plans. Wetlands and uplands will also be managed for invasive species to ensure the successful establishment of diverse native plant communities. Management will include treatment of species such as reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea). Vegetation management may include chemical or mechanical methods and/or periodic prescribed burns.
SERVICE AREA: The proposed mitigation bank will be in the Mississippi Service Area.
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