Places > Dugout Stream & Wetland Mitigation Bank

Dugout Stream & Wetland Mitigation Bank

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

Project Type
Mitigation Bank
Location
North Carolina | Cumberland County
Service Area
Cape Fear 05 Watershed | HUC 03030005
Project Size
Wetland: 13.61 AC Streams: 7,860 LF
Solution
Environmental Mitigation, Stream Mitigation, Wetland Mitigation
Habitat Types
  • Riparian wetland
  • Stream

CONTACT

NCCreditSales@res.us

The Dugout Stream & Wetland Mitigation Site (the Project) is located in southern Cumberland County, NC, approximately seven miles south of Fayetteville. The Project will involve the restoration, enhancement, and preservation of Grays Creek and two of its unnamed tributaries. The project provides 41.3 acres of a proposed conservation easement. The conceptual design presents 7,860 linear feet of stream mitigation, generating 6,496 Stream Mitigation Units (SMUs) and 13.61 acres of wetland mitigation generating 5.78 Riparian Wetland Mitigation Units (WMUs).

The Project has the following objectives that provide functional lift:

  • Design and reconstruct stream channels sized to convey bankfull flows that will maintain a stable dimension, profile, and planform based on watershed and referent reach conditions;
  • Permanently exclude livestock from stream channels and their associate buffers;
  • Add in-stream structures and bank stabilization measures to protect restored and enhanced streams;
  • Install habitat features such as brush toes, constructed riffles, woody materials, and pools of varying depths to restore and enhance streams;
  • Increase forested riparian buffers to at least 50 feet on both sides of the channel along the project reaches with a hardwood riparian community;
  • Raise stream bed elevations adjacent to wetland restoration and enhancement areas, plugging surface ditches, and planting native wetland plant species;

The Project was identified as having the potential to help meet the compensatory mitigation requirements for stream and wetland impacts in the hydrologic unit code (HUC) 03030005 of the Cape Fear River Basin. The 2009 Cape Fear River Basin Restoration Priorities (RBRP) plan for HUC 03030005 recommends a restoration focus on the upper part of the watershed, which is expected to have continued urban growth associated with Fort Bragg. The Dugout Site focuses on being located at the very top of the watershed and immediately downstream of a growing suburban area between Highway 87 and I-95 on the south side of Fayetteville. The project will address stressors identified in the watershed through nutrient removal, sediment removal, runoff filtration, and improved aquatic and terrestrial habitat.