Thunder Swamp Mitigation Bank

The Thunder Swamp Mitigation Bank is located within the Neuse River Basin in Wayne County near Mount Olive, North Carolina. This project consists of conservation easements that will total a combined 82 acres and codeveloped with a contracted NC Division of Mitigation Services (DMS) project. Previously, much of the project area was used extensively for agricultural purposes for at least 70 years. The project reaches and adjacent areas were in either crop production or degraded forest. Water quality stressors that affected the projects included heavily manipulated/relocated and maintained stream channels, nutrient loadings from active crop production, and lack of forested riparian buffers.

The goal of this project was to restore, enhance, and preserve the ecological function of the existing stream and its associated riparian areas by establishing appropriate plant communities while minimizing temporal and land-disturbing impacts. Buffer and surrounding riparian area improvements will filter runoff from agricultural fields, thereby reducing nutrient and sediment loads to the Project channels and providing water quality benefits to the overall watershed. This project has the potential to generate up to 551,335.133 square feet of riparian buffer mitigation credits and provide 93,051.943 lbs of N of nutrient offset credits.