20040325 Ver 2_Meeting Note_20090414

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OVERVIEW OF PROPOSED RESTORATION AT
BARRA FARMS PHASE II
• Entire project area consists of non-riparian headwater wetland
system exhibiting various degrees of degradation from agricultural
and silvicultural land use practices
• Soils:
-Croatan muck soils - deeper organic (histosol)
-Leon and Torhunta soils - sandier spodisols characteristic of
interstream flats
• Wetland habitat types to be restored:
-Pocosin (subtype Carolina bay)
-Wet Savannah
FUNCTIONAL REPLACEMENT
Headwater landscape position contiguous with first-order stream
Characteristic hydroperiods, soils types, and landscape position
support the following functions:
• Nutrient Removal/Transformation
• Floodf low Attenuation/Surface Water Storage
• Sediment/Pollutant Retention
• Groundwater Discharge and Recharge
• Wildlife Habitat
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WETLAND HABITAT TYPES OF BARRA II
NCWAM
• Pocosin
• Pine Savannah
Schafale and Weakley (1990)
• Pocosin (low, high, pond pine woodland, bay forest,
streamhead pocosin, small depression pocosin)
• Wet savannah (wet pine flatwoods, pine savannah,
and sandhill seep)
HGM
• Depressional (Carolina bay)
• Flats (mineral)
«?nr<ert
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EXAMPLES OF WETLAND HABITAT TYPES
THROUGHOUT GSA
Bay forests and pocosins cited to occur throughout the outer and middle
Coastal Plain, Sandhills, and lower Piedmont of North Carolina (Schafale
and Weakley, 1990; Landaal, 1991; Russo et al. 1993)
Low Pocosins (histosols)
Green Swamp (Brunswick County)
Bushy Lake State Natural Area (Cumberland County)
Pond Pine Woodlands (shallow organic; spodisols)
Boiling Springs Wetland Complex (Brunswick County)
Mill Pond Bay Natural Area (Bladen and Cumberland Counties)
Greenview Ranches (New Hanover County)
EXAMPLES OF WETLAND HABITAT TYPES
THROUGHOUT GSA
Streamhead Pocosins (mineral soils - e.g. Bibbs Raines)
Fort Bragg (Cumberland and Hoke Counties)
Green Swamp (Brunswick County)
Depressional Pocosins (limesinks, small Carolina bad)
Fort Bragg (Cumberland and Hoke Counties)
Carolina Beach State Park and Sunny Point Buffer Zone
(New Hanover County)
Wet Savannah (wet mineral soils; e.g. Leon. Foreston. Grifton
Subtypes include wet pine flatwoods, pine savannah, and
sandhill seep
Bladen Lakes State Forest (Bladen County)
Green Swamp (Brunswick County)
Fort Bragg (Hoke County)
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CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSA DETERMINATION
2008 FEDERAL MITIGATION RULE (33 CFR 332.8(d)(6)(ii)(A))
• In rural areas, "several contiguous 8-digit HUCs or a 6-digit HUC watershed
may be an appropriate service area"
• GSA can be the ecoregion or the physiographic province
6-digit HUC of the Cape Fear River Basin would include:
03030001 -- New. North Carolina. Area = 613 sq.mi.
03030002 -- Haw. North Carolina. Area = 1690 sq.mi.
03030003 -- Deep. North Carolina. Area = 1430 sq.mi.
03030004 -- Upper Cape Fear. North Carolina. Area = 1630 sq.mi.
03030005 -- Lower Cape Fear. North Carolina. Area = 1030 sq.mi.
03030006 -- Black. North Carolina. Area = 1570 sq.mi.
03030007 -- Northeast Cape Fear. North Carolina. Area = 1740 sq.mi.
(totals 9,700 square mile area)
CONSIDERATIONS FOR GSA DETERMINATION
ECONOMIC VIABILITY
Per Federal Mitigation Rule (33 CFR 332.8), determination of GSA should consider
the economic viability of the bank
In rural areas, larger GSA's are justified to allow for economic viability of bank
(GSA may be multiple 8-digit HUCs or 6-digit HUC)
Incorporation of urban areas (higher credit demand) are necessary
Consideration of economic viability needs to be addressed for private bank sites
yet to be implemented (conditions distinct from publically funded, in-the-ground
sites)
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POPULATION GROWTH TRENDS

COUNTY July
2007
Pop April
2000
Pop Total
Growth
% Growth
BLADEN 32,500 32,278 222 0.7
BRUNSWICK 99,440 73,141 26,299 36.0
COLUMBUS 54,460 54,749 -289 -0.5
CUMBERLAND 313,616 302,960 10,656 3.5
HARNETT 106,506 91,085 15,421 16.9
HOKE 42,932 33,650 9,282 27.6
MOORE 83,932 74,768 9,164 12.3
NEW HANOVER 189,922 160,327 29,595 18.5
PENDER 50,430 41,082 9,348 22.8
SAMPSON 64,522 60,161 4,361 7.2

NORTH CAROLINA 9,069,398 8,046,491 1,022,907 12.71
Source: NC Office of State Budget and Management (www.osbm.stat.nc.us)
Percent Projected County Population Growth (2000.2020)
9s 16% for Counties of the Cape Fear River Basin
21% ,....,.. .. -- _
26%
26% 29%
29%
2 79/ 41%
29% i.,...,,_,.
s>
23% 41%
1fYa
42% 17% 30% T
27%
Legend 36%
O Rt-Basin 8.nCary
_ County B-d.
14% 31
35%
20- 0 20 40 M11.
i?
15%
NC OMabn of W-r 0,,Idy
Besinwitle P .N, Prcg-
FeM.a 1, 2505
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8-Digit Hydrologic Units in the Cape Fear River Basin
and Population Density by Subbasin
03030002
03030003 wn?m
moo ae
oauen] m+.?5m
03030006
? VMw mlma4l] N
p,npml 0]-0414
03030004 o4ec?] w wm u]+]a 1e wn.am
03030007
0]46A 0406]2
Legend
O BuWasin Bwndary wn m
8-Digit Hydrologic Unit -
D3D3DDOt
was-so
03030002 wd•em
o303oo03 03030005
d?
03030004
03030005 03030001
03o3ooos ?
a61>
o3D30W7
pertg ml-perwns psr s4uam mle 20 0 20 40 MAes a. sDrmide Penning Prog
Febuary 1. 200.5
CREDIT DEMAND AND BANK ECONOMICS
401 CERTIFICATIONS BY SUB-BASIN 1995-2000 (NC DWQ DATA)
NC DWQ Total Impacts Average Counties
Subbasin Permitted (1995- Impacts Per
2000) Year
030614 58.74 11.75 Moore, Harnett,
Hoke, Cumberland
030615 101.28 20.26 Hoke,
Cumberland
(Fort Bragg)
030616 20.98 4.20 Bladen, Columbus
030317 147.75 29.55 Brunswick,
Columbus
030618 7.23 1.45 Cumberland,
Bladen
030619 38.2 7.64 Sampson
030620 1.93 0.39 Bladen, gender
030624 147.61 29.52 New Hanover,
Pender (coast)
Note: 1995-2000 time period allowed for greater impact thresholds under Section 404 NWP (thus likely is an over-estimate
of projected impacts)
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CREDIT DEMAND AND BANK ECONOMICS
• Bank Start-up Costs:
Land, site evaluations, survey, design, banking documents, permitting,
conservation easement/endowment
300k to 500k (without land)
• Bank Implementation Costs:
Bonding, earthwork, planting (925 ac)
1.0 M to 1.5 M
• Private Bank will need to recover these hard costs in first 18 months of credit
sales
• Assuming 35k per credit, Sponsor would need to sell 37 to 51 credits in the
the first 18 months (or 24 to 34 per year)
PRIOR GSA CONSIDERATIONS
KARST TOPOGRAPHY
-underlying limestone geology
-common in New Hanover, Pender, Onslow, and Carteret Counties
- presence of limestone outcroppings may be shallow enough to
result in isolated wetland depressions
- pocosins and wet pine savannahs occur throughout proposed GSA
and provide same functions irrespective of underlying geology (controlled
more by soil profile conditions - such as spodisols)
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS OF GSA
• Establishment of wetland and stream banks on suitable sites is
deemed ecologically beneficial (requires approved plan, financial
assurances, conservation easement, and project milestones)
• Appropriately sized GSAs will encourage the establishment of
bank sites
• In rural areas, larger service areas are necessary for bank viability
• Preference should still be given to bank sites within 8-digit HUCs
(consistent with Senate Bill 1885), then to bank sites in adjacent
HUCs
• Functional replacement of wetland types and likelihood of success
are primary considerations for Section 404/401 authorization
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