Mitchell County wetland project hits BOS roadblock
A proposed wetland project on the formerly known as Mitchell County Care Facility property was voted down in a 2-3 vote during the April 27th Mitchell County Board of Supervisor’s meeting.
Supervisor, Jim Wherry who voted for the wetland project, said he envisions the wetland project resulting in another gathering, event, and activity location in the county, potentially drawing people from other areas resulting in more traffic in Mitchell County restaurants and businesses.
According to Adam Shirley, Mitchell County Conservation Board Director, the project has been on the horizon for approximately 10 years, when he started his tenure with the county. He said three years ago neighbors of the property began calling the county conservation department with complaints of a weed problem.
Shirley said the 70-acre property currently has invasive species, such as Reed Canary grass; however, he said there are also good trees and prairie on the section of land.
“From a conservation standpoint we want to create a wetland there, and then we found out that it could serve as what’s called a mitigation bank,” Shirley said.
According to an article published on the website of Snyder & Associates, a Civil & Structural Engineering, a Wetland Mitigation Bank is, “property containing at least 25 acres of improved or created wetland. Improvements include enhancing vegetation and restoring hydrology.”
The American Forest Management website further explains how a mitigation bank works, “Wetland mitigation is the practice of offsetting unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources at one site by restoring and/or enhancing wetlands at another site in the same or adjacent watershed. Mitigation banks offer these offsets, called credits, to developers by preemptively completing a large restoration and/or enhancement project on a site known as a mitigation bank and selling credits to new construction projects to meet regulatory compensatory mitigation requirements that are issued as conditions of a permit.”
“That’s part of environmental restoration of what we do here that creates benefits for wildlife, for water quality, for flooding,” Shirley said.
According to Shirley, Mitchell County has approximately 25 credits banked.
“We could start selling credits even before construction, once we have their (the Mitchell County Supervisors),” Shirley said, “you can sell 15% [of your total credits] before construction and then as soon as your construction design is inspected and improved, you can sell 15% more, and then you continue on that schedule for 15 years.”
According to the benefit cost analysis provided by Snyder & Associates, the gross sales of the credits Mitchell County currently has banked is $914,200. The wetland project estimated cost is $450,820, resulting a net profit of $463,380 to Mitchell County.
“The whole thing is nothing but positive. People come to this county and spend their money, so it’s all positive as far as I’m looking at it,” Wherry said.
According to Wherry the current plan has evolved and improved from its original state, primarily because of adjacent landowner feedback.
Shirley said a few landowners believed their tile lines may be in jeopardy, “they thought that their tile lines were in danger being plugged, so the drainage was the main issue that I kind of got and once we explained how that was all going to work really got them at ease.”
He added, “it’s against the law to block anyone’s tile drainage so obviously we’re not going to do that. But people still want to make sure— they have investment in that, and we do too—we just need to educate how this was going to work.”
Ultimately Shirley said he wants to provide more information to the Mitchell County Supervisors providing a better understanding of the benefits to conservation and the low farmland impact and financial risk.
Fortunately, for Mitchell County, the project is still on the table.
Mark Walk, Mitchell County Attorney, presented his view during the May 4 Board of Supervisor’s meeting. He said, “I thought the wetland was a good idea.”
According to Walk, members of the conservation board approached him about the possibility of moving forward with wetland project.
“I’m coming forward not only because they wanted me to come back to you and talk about it, but also because it was a good idea,” Walk said.
As a result, the supervisor’s agreed to re-visit the proposed project in early June.
Shirley said if the Mitchell County Board of Supervisors approve of the wetland project in June, the timeline will remain intact, and the project should move forward as planned.
