Tuesday, December 1, 2015
David Flick, Principal and Founder of Terra Technologies, is proud to announce the conclusion of a Public Notice by the Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the proposed establishment of the Nishnabotna / Platte EDU Wetland and Stream Umbrella Mitigation Bank which will be operated by Swallow Tail, LLC.
This proposed umbrella mitigation bank will function as a regional mitigation program that will govern the development and operation of multiple wetland and stream mitigation sites in northwestern Missouri. The geographic boundary of this umbrella mitigation bank is the Nishnabotna / Platte Ecological Drainage Unit (EDU) which includes all of the land within Missouri draining to the Missouri River upstream of downtown Kansas City. The primary tributaries to the Missouri River in this service area include the Nishnabotna River, the Tarkio River, the Nodaway River, the One Hundred and Two River, and the Platte River. The establishment of this umbrella mitigation bank would make mitigation banking available to the St. Joseph area, the northwestern portion of the Kansas City metropolitan area within Missouri, as well as the surrounding rural areas.
The initial mitigation site that would be established under this umbrella mitigation bank is a 300-acre parcel located at the confluence of the Platte River and Castile Creek. Past agricultural activities on this parcel resulted in the clearing of all of the original trees and the replacement of the native plant communities with agricultural row crop fields and thin second growth riparian buffers. Additionally, 1.5 miles of levees have been built to significantly reduce flooding on more than 170 acres of the Platte River and Castile Creek floodplains, actions that had substantial ramifications to stream and riparian ecosystem functioning. Swallow Tail, LLC proposes to restore, establish, and enhance hundreds of acres of riparian buffer, wetland and upland habitat on this project site. Notable proposed habitat improvements include breaching the Platte River and Castile Creek levees to restore floodplain connectivity to much of the site and restoring natural alignment and cross section to several floodplain ephemeral streams that have been previously removed or degraded by agricultural activities and the associated levee construction.
Mitigation along Castile Creek is especially valuable because that stream is a Designated Fish Spawning Area. Also, the portion of the mitigation site along Castile Creek was considered by the Missouri Department of Conservation as a high-level priority for their acquisition in order to protect the stream frontage of that waterway.
For more information about mitigation services, contact your local office of Terra Technologies.
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