Poplar Creek

The Poplar Creek project is located in Johnston County, approximately three miles north of Smithfield within the Neuse River Basin HUC 03020201. Water quality stressors affecting the project area included livestock production, agricultural production, closed drainage system, and an impoundment. Goals for the project include an increase to hydrologic function and restoration to ecological function within the existing stream and riparian corridor, and the protection of these features in perpetuity. These were accomplished by removing an agricultural impoundment, planting the riparian buffer, excluding livestock from the conservation easement through fencing, and returning the existing streams to stable conditions by constructing a stream channel with appropriate dimensions and pattern and reconnecting the channel to the floodplain. The project presents 4,273 linear feet of stream restoration and enhancement, generating 3,926 Stream Mitigation Units along three unnamed tributaries that drain into Poplar Creek. The Poplar Creek project also generates approximately 93,766 SF of riparian buffer restoration credits, 76,454. SF of riparian buffer enhancement credits via cattle exclusion, 8,220.5 SF of riparian buffer preservation credits, and 1,454.73 lbs of nitrogen credits. Construction was completed in 2019