Expiration date: 5/15/2025
The proposed bank is located within an ecological landscape that has been degraded predominately by drainage and conversion to agricultural land use. Based on historic aerial imagery, the site has been cleared of most trees, was ditched, and cropped for agricultural land use before 1941. Farming ceased by 1990 in the southwest and northeast corners of the site and hardwood swamp wetland communities began to establish. Some of the fields were used for sod farming. The site was utilized as a tree plantation prior to 2005 with large portions of the site planted with stands of various coniferous and deciduous trees. After 2017, active maintenance of the fields and tree plantation rows ceased, and vegetation was left to grow naturally. The objectives of the project are to restore wetland hydrology to areas that were historically drained by ditches and tiles for agricultural purposes and to establish native plant communities that are appropriate for the postrestoration hydrologic conditions. The project proposes to restore wetland communities by reestablishing 34.87 acres of fresh wet meadow, rehabilitating 5.14 acres of fresh wet meadow, enhancing 24.29 acres of existing fresh wet meadow and hardwood swamp, and restoring 3.68 acres of upland buffer to mesic prairie.