May 21, 2019
David Flick, Principal and Founder of Terra Technologies, is proud to announce that the Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved the Hog Creek Mitigation Site. This is the third mitigation site of the Kansas River and Missouri River Wetland and Stream Umbrella Mitigation Bank, a regional mitigation program that operates across northeastern Kansas, including most of the Kansas portion of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Mitigation sites like the one on Hog Creek replace wetland and stream habitats that are lost as a result of land development and other impacts authorized under Sections 404 and 401 of the Clean Water Act.
An umbrella mitigation bank operates as an ongoing habitat restoration program across an entire watershed by providing a policy framework that guides the establishment of an initial on-the-ground mitigation site as well as numerous future mitigation locations. The umbrella mitigation bank document includes an analysis of historical and current water quality issues within the watershed that identifies immediate and long-term habitat and water quality needs and then determines which locations should receive the highest priority for the establishment of future mitigation sites. The umbrella mitigation bank document also sets policy guidelines about the creation and operation of the mitigation sites, including such factors as performance standards, financial assurances, credit calculation methods, and long-term management.
Situated near the confluence of Hog Creek and Stranger Creek, the 67-acre Hog Creek Mitigation Site will feature numerous restored habitats, including herbaceous and forested wetlands, riparian forests, prairies, and restored stream channels. In its current agricultural state, this site consists of farm fields north of Hog Creek and a second-growth forest south of the creek. Two ephemeral streams have been eradicated or highly modified by agricultural earthwork in the farm fields. In addition, the channel bottom of Hog Creek has lowered slightly over the years and as a result an intermittent stream south of that creek has dramatically eroded down, exposing tree roots, causing significant stream bank instability and erosion, and reducing the ecological health of the stream and its associated floodplain.
These impairments will be addressed through the following activities:
- Restoring stream bed stability to Hog Creek through the installation of rock riffle grade control structures
- Restoring the stream bed elevation of the intermittent stream channel through regenerative stream restoration by constructing rock riffle grade control structures and adding fill from nearby wetland construction along with natural sedimentation from stream flows
- Restoring almost a half-mile length of two ephemeral stream channels with natural sinuosity and channel dimensions
- Converting 30 acres of farm fields to riparian forest
- Enhancing more than 17 acres of existing riparian forest through the establishment of several wetland areas
- Restoring 7 acres of herbaceous floodplain wetlands and more than 8 acres of surrounding upland habitat
Mitigation activities are scheduled to begin in 2019.
For more information about mitigation services, contact your local office of Terra Technologies.
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