Friday, June 1, 2015
David Flick, Principal and Founder of Terra Technologies, is proud to announce that the Osage Plains Wetland and Stream Mitigation Bank has been declared fully successful, has sold all of its credits, and has been closed out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
This restoration site was the first mitigation bank in Missouri outside of the St. Louis area. Roughly 40.5 acres in size, this former agricultural parcel was ecologically improved through the establishment of about 18.5 acres of marsh buffered by native prairie; enhancement of a combined 5.6 acres of existing floodplain forest, herbaceous wetlands, and riparian buffer; and 15.5 acres of new riparian buffer plantings along approximately 3,250 of one side of the East Branch of the South Grand River. Additionally, an adjacent 15-acre wetland mitigation site abuts one of the southern boundaries of the site and enhances the ecological value of the site. These ecological improvements were quantified into wetland and stream credits and sold to third parties to offset the impacts to aquatic resources in west-central Missouri, specifically the Central Plains / Osage / South Grand Ecological Drainage Unit. Over the four years and five months the mitigation bank was open it was used as compensatory mitigation for ten projects.
Approximately 393 acres of land drains directly through the mitigation bank and the runoff is filtered through the floodplain wetlands created on the site before emptying into the East Branch. Moreover, the site floods roughly annually which allows the site to clean and detain some of the floodwaters.
A combination of macrotopography and microtopography established on the site created a variety of hydrological conditions and a resulting diversity of plant communities. This has led to a significant amount of wildlife using the site including numerous amphibians, reptiles and birds with the most notable observations being of a healthy small-mouthed salamander population, snapping turtles, and white pelicans.
The Osage Plains mitigation bank was used by the U.S. EPA as a location to help demonstrate wetland assessment methods and was also visited by a previous EPA Regional Administrator and his deputy.
For more information about wetland services, contact your local office of Terra Technologies.
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