Created 326.58 acres of wetland mitigation credit by developing self-sustaining emergent, scrub-shrub, and forested wetlands by restoring a historic, substantially degraded wetland and preserving 12.6 acres of forested wetland in the Kalamazoo River Watershed. The bank has been sited to ensure a successful restoration that maximizes the benefits to the Kalamazoo Mitigation Watershed. The site had been in agricultural production for many years and is located in the headwaters of the Kalamazoo River Watershed. During flood events, the Bank serves to capture and store floodwaters reducing downstream flooding and reducing peak flows in the upstream tributaries and the Kalamazoo River. The site design and location addresses several water impairments identified in the EPA approved Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan (2011) including excess nutrients, habitat, hydrology (i.e., unstable flows), sediments, and water temperature. The mitigation bank addresses each of these impairments by improving flood storage (water temperature and hydrology) reducing stream peak flows during storm events (hydrology), and the restoration of wetlands (habitat, sediments, and nutrients). The removal of agricultural ditches and tiles and the installation of low berms and several clay cut-off walls hold water on-site creating natural wetland conditions. Based on the Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan, the bank is located in the Battle Creek River subwatershed which is identified as having the second largest amount of first priority wetland restoration acres area in the entire Kalamazoo Mitigation Watershed.
