The Polecat mitigation site is located within a watershed dominated by agricultural land use in Johnston County, North Carolina, approximately two miles southeast of Smithfield. The project streams have been significantly impacted by livestock access, row crop production, and nearby urbanization. The project will involve the restoration and protection of streams in the Neuse River watershed on approximately 53 acres of conservation easement. The purpose of this mitigation site is to restore and enhance a stream complex located within the Neuse River Basin. The site supports many of the Neuse River Basin Restoration Priorities Pan (RBRP) and Neuse Regional Watershed Plan (RWP) goals. The project’s watershed is primarily rural with Interstate 95 occupying the western portion of the watershed. The project parcels have been in agricultural use for several decades.

The site includes streams that directly discharge into the Neuse River. Many of the project design goals and objectives, including restoration of riparian buffers to filter runoff from agricultural operations and improve terrestrial habitat, and construction of in-stream structures to improve habitat diversity, will address the degraded water quality and nutrient input from farming that were identified as major watershed stressors in the 2010 Neuse RBRP. Water quality stressors affecting the site include livestock access, row crop production, and impervious surface. The project presents 8,178 linear feet of stream restoration and enhancement generating 6,567 Stream Mitigation Units (SMU).