WATERWAY AND LOCATION: The project would affect waters of the United States (WOTUS) associated with Manning Creek. The proposed site is located within Section 25, Township 44 North, Range 2 East, Winnebago County, Illinois at Latitude 42.266000 and Longitude -88.953000.
EXISTING CONDITIONS: The site consists of undeveloped vacant land adjacent to Manning Creek. The majority of the creek itself is currently below-grade in a network of culverts running in a northwest-southeast orientation. The site was formerly the Elliott Golf Course. The area surrounding the site is a mixture of agricultural land, residential areas, and commercial properties.
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, supporting long-term ecological health and functionality of the Manning Creek floodplain, and reducing the temporal losses of stream and wetlands within the Northern Service Area of Illinois.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION/BANK ESTABLISHMENT: The bank sponsor proposes to complete activities on 57.21 acres of property owned by the sponsor that would result in the restoration of Manning Creek along with areas of emergent wetland to generate stream mitigation credits and/or emergent wetland credits. The goal of the bank is to restore Manning Creek and upland herbaceous buffer to generate 116,992 stream mitigation credits. The sponsor proposes that 10.36 acres of habitat created in association with intermittent drainageway restoration be allowed to be sold as either stream or emergent wetland mitigation credits. Stream restoration would include daylighting and re-meandering Manning Creek, dam removal, oxbow restoration, constructing floodplain benches, installing cross-vanes, and restoring riparian buffer. Wetland enhancement would include seeding wetland vegetation, invasive species
management to enhance species diversity, and creation of an upland buffer. A wetland delineation will be completed during the 2026 growing season to help define current conditions and aid in the determination of mitigation credits. Success criteria are required to be met in order to generate credit for the proposed activities. A more detailed project description is located within the Prospectus on the Regulatory In-lieu Fee and Bank Information Tracking System (RIBITS; link provided in “Comments” section, below).
SERVICE AREA: The proposed bank service area will be the Northern Service Area in Illinois.
Click the link below to view the full notice.