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Officials put side space for wetland projects
By STEVE KADEL
H&N staff writer
 |
| Jenny Severson and Allison Cowie, land specialists with Oregon Department of Transportation, perform wetland delineation Tuesday at a new bank of wetlands in progress east of Olene on Highway 140. H&N photo by Andrew Mariman |
OLENE — The Oregon Department of
Transportation is going into the banking business.
Banking of wetlands, that is.
The agency is expanding a wetlands area it previously built adjacent to Highway 140 just east of Olene. The purpose is to have wetland acreage in the “bank” as a tradeoff for when road construction projects fill parts of other existing wetlands.
“That way you have credits from the bank as you do projects,” said Allison Cowie, wetlands specialist for ODOT.
The federal Clean Water Act and the
state Removal-Fill Law require an acre-for-acre
trade so there is no net loss of wetlands, she said.
The current project will expand the Olene wetlands from 4 1/2 acres to about 13 total acres. Construction cost is $700,000.
Vegetation will be transferred from the Klamath Wildlife Area on Miller Island to give it a good start. Cowie said that’s cheaper and more effective than using nursery stock.
“Nursery stock has less stored energy in its roots because the roots are so small,” she said.
New concept
Cowie said banking is a relatively new concept in wetlands mitigation. There are several banks in the Willamette Valley, she said, but only a couple east of the Cascade Range.
Some of the existing wetlands near Olene have already served ODOT by mitigating the widening of Highway 97 near Collier State Park.
Cowie said the agency plans to mitigate about five road projects from the existing wetlands. The larger, phase-two addition now under construction will mitigate up to 20 road projects.
“Our impacts are generally very small,” Cowie said.
She explained that creating one large wetlands near Olene would be more ecologically beneficial than building two or three separate ones.
“When you create a really small wetlands, it doesn’t create as many functions as a large wetlands,” she said.
She said the existing wetlands near Olene have thrived, so ODOT’s contractor is using the same construction techniques. That includes building a big bench with a berm separating the bench from the Lost River.
The berm will allow plants to grow in the new wetlands without being washed out by too much water, Cowie said.
“We’ll create a kind of nursery for plants where we can control the growth,” she said.
It will take the plants more than a year to become stable enough to accept more water. Cowie said that by October 2009 the berm would be removed “when the plants are resilient to deeper water levels.”
Doing so earlier would drown the plants, she said.
Cowie added that it took about two years of meetings and documentation to get the current project approved.
Tom Feeley, ODOT construction project manager, said the Olene project is using a couple of scrapers, an excavator and trucks for hauling away dirt. The material being removed will be placed nearer to Highway 140, he said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Banking of wetlands, that is.
The agency is expanding a wetlands area it previously built adjacent to Highway 140 just east of Olene. The purpose is to have wetland acreage in the “bank” as a tradeoff for when road construction projects fill parts of other existing wetlands.
“That way you have credits from the bank as you do projects,” said Allison Cowie, wetlands specialist for ODOT.
The current project will expand the Olene wetlands from 4 1/2 acres to about 13 total acres. Construction cost is $700,000.
Vegetation will be transferred from the Klamath Wildlife Area on Miller Island to give it a good start. Cowie said that’s cheaper and more effective than using nursery stock.
“Nursery stock has less stored energy in its roots because the roots are so small,” she said.
New concept
Cowie said banking is a relatively new concept in wetlands mitigation. There are several banks in the Willamette Valley, she said, but only a couple east of the Cascade Range.
Some of the existing wetlands near Olene have already served ODOT by mitigating the widening of Highway 97 near Collier State Park.
Cowie said the agency plans to mitigate about five road projects from the existing wetlands. The larger, phase-two addition now under construction will mitigate up to 20 road projects.
“Our impacts are generally very small,” Cowie said.
She explained that creating one large wetlands near Olene would be more ecologically beneficial than building two or three separate ones.
“When you create a really small wetlands, it doesn’t create as many functions as a large wetlands,” she said.
She said the existing wetlands near Olene have thrived, so ODOT’s contractor is using the same construction techniques. That includes building a big bench with a berm separating the bench from the Lost River.
The berm will allow plants to grow in the new wetlands without being washed out by too much water, Cowie said.
“We’ll create a kind of nursery for plants where we can control the growth,” she said.
It will take the plants more than a year to become stable enough to accept more water. Cowie said that by October 2009 the berm would be removed “when the plants are resilient to deeper water levels.”
Doing so earlier would drown the plants, she said.
Cowie added that it took about two years of meetings and documentation to get the current project approved.
Tom Feeley, ODOT construction project manager, said the Olene project is using a couple of scrapers, an excavator and trucks for hauling away dirt. The material being removed will be placed nearer to Highway 140, he said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml