Ecological Assessment of a Wetlands Mitigation Bank (Phase I: Baseline Ecological Conditions and Initial Restoration Efforts).

摘要

The Tulula Wetlands Mitigation Bank, the first wetlands mitigation bank in the Blue Ridge Province of North Carolina, was created to compensate for losses resulting from highway projects in western North Carolina. The overall objective for the Tulula Wetlands Mitigation Bank has been to restore the functional and structural characteristics of the wetlands. Specific ecological restoration objectives of this Phase I study included: (1) reestablishing site hydrology by realigning the stream channel and filling drainage ditches; (2) recontouring the floodplain by removing spoil that resulted from creation of the golf ponds and dredging of the creek; (3) improving breeding habitat for amphibians by constructing vernal ponds; and (4) reestablishing floodplain and fen plant communities. Efforts to restore Tulula have focused on the altered hydrology of the site, particularly on the re-meandering of Tulula Creek, which had been previously been dredged into a gully-like channel. The footprint of the new meandering channel has been completed, and the contractor will join the separate segments of the new channel together in fall of 2001. The report offers several recommendations for approaching wetland restoration both general and specific to Tulula. A key recommendation is to maintain flexibility in the regulatory components of restoration; rather than trying to use a 'cookbook' approach, federal and state agencies that work cooperatively on wetland restoration activities should use site-specific baseline ecological conditions to develop restoration strategies that are appropriate for each site.