Author: Amy Numbers

The National Mitigation & Ecosystem Banking Conference (NMEBC) brings members together to advance and protect the environment in a financially sustainable way. This year’s conference is scheduled for May 8-11 in Louisville, Kentucky. Stream + Wetlands’ President Vince Messerly will be serving as the moderator for Session 6 of the conference on Thursday, May 10 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  The session, titled “The Farmer, Rancher & Banking” will include the following topics and speakers:

NRCS Wetland Mitigation Banking Program Current Status, Lessons Learned

Shaun T. Vickers, National Wetland Mitigation Specialist, Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA, Lincoln, Neb.

 Middle-Platte Rainwater Basin Agricultural Mitigation Bank: One Year Later

Karen Caddis, Conservation Planner, Westervelt Ecological Services, Centennial, Colo.

 How Mitigation Banking Became the Lifeblood of Our Farm

Drausin F. Wulsin, Manager, Red Stone Farm, LLC, Hillsboro, OH and Jacob Bartley, Owner, Plum Hill Ecological Services, LLC, Covington, Ky.

For more information, visit the NMEBC website.

Florida Gulf Coast University’s (FGCU) Everglades Wetland Research Park in Naples will begin its sixth annual “Moonlight on the Marsh” Distinguished Lecture Series. The free lectures, which begin on Jan. 18 and run through March 15, will explore timely topics including climate change, coastal sustainability and Southwest Florida mangroves and will include five preeminent national and international speakers. Dr. William J. Mitsch, eminent scholar, director of the Everglades Wetland Research Park and friend of the Stream + Wetlands Foundation calls this year’s series “one of our most complete, from top to bottom.”

For more information about this lecture series, visit the FGCU website.

In compliance with Executive Order (EO) 13783 “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth”, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released their report on October 25. The EO required federal agencies to review existing regulations that would potentially burden domestic energy resources (oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear resources). The USACE identified Nationwide Permits as a regulation meeting the review requirements of the EO.

Of the 52 nationwide permits that authorize activities under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, the agency identified 12 of the 52 nationwide permits that related to domestic energy production. The USACE is recommending changes to nine of those 12 nationwide permits to reduce burdens on domestic energy producers.

To find out more, read the entire press release here.

The Columbus Dispatch recently ran an editorial about S+W’s research project which is being led by Ohio State University professor emeritus Dr. William Mitsch. “Wetlands could fix pollution from farms” discusses Mitsch’s research to temporarily re-establish wetlands in farm fields to reduce algae blooms. Read more about this unique research project here.

On May 18, in conjunction with American Wetlands month and the 2017 National Wetlands Awards, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) hosted a panel of experts to discuss the future of the mitigation industry. S+W President Vince Messerly participated in the discussion. ELI captured the entire transcript of the discussion and a copy of the PDF is available here.

Stream + Wetlands (S+W) Foundation is proud to have entered into a partnership with world renowned environmental scientist William J. Mitsch, Ph.D. in an outdoor experimental mesocosm project. Dubbed “wetlaculture” – because it integrates wetlands with agriculture – this multi-year project will study the design of wetlands to decrease downstream eutrophication, including harmful algal blooms and hypoxia, while replacing the requirements of additional fertilization for agricultural production with a recycling mechanism that will return those nutrients to the soil.

A mesocosm is any outdoor experimental system that examines the natural environment under controlled conditions. Mesocosm studies provide a link between field surveys and highly controlled laboratory experiments. Baseline studies involve creating wetland compounds in 30 tubs that will be initially planted with local wetland vegetation to simulate larger-scale wetlands in agricultural settings. S + W’s support will allow the research team to install a mesocosm compound at a site in the Great Black Swamp basin near to the Maumee River in Defiance County.

To read Dr. Mitsch’s article abstract “Solving Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms by restoring the Great Black Swamp in Ohio” on the ScienceDirect website, click here. Dr. Mitsch has been generously offered to provide a copy of his paper to those who email him at wmitsch@fgcu.edu.

Stream + Wetlands is providing compensatory wetland mitigation for unavoidable impacts associated with the construction of the NEXUS Gas Transmission Pipeline.  The 255-mile interstate natural gas transmission pipeline will deliver 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of clean-burning natural gas from receipt points in eastern Ohio to existing pipeline system interconnects in southeastern Michigan. The project will extend from southeast Michigan to Columbiana county in eastern Ohio. The construction of the 36-inch-diameter natural gas transmission line is expected to begin this fall.

The Ohio EPA granted a Water Quality Certification for the project on September 19, 2017 (read the press release here).  The Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project in August 2017.  The Ohio EPA certification requires NEXUS to have and implement very detailed contingency plans for managing unanticipated releases to the environment, such as inadvertent returns and a storm water pollution prevention plan to manage possible storm-water-related impacts to the environment.

Stream + Wetlands Foundation, in conjunction with the Geauga Park District, has organized a field visit to the Pine Brook Wetlands Mitigation Bank on August 4. Jim Bissell, Director of Conservation & Natural Areas and David Kriska, Biodiversity Coordinator, both with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, will be on hand to lead the tour which begins at 9:00 am.

The Pine Brook mitigation bank was approved by the Army Corps of Engineers on March 2009. It is the first approved mitigation bank in Ohio that generates compensatory mitigation credit primarily by the preservation of existing high-quality wetlands and associated upland buffers. The site encompasses more than 706 contiguous acres containing eight state-listed plant species and more than 450 acres of very high-quality wetlands.

Interested in joining us for this informative tour? Time is of the essence and space is limited.  Please contact Vince Messery at vmesserly@streamandwetlands.org.