Bachelor’s Delight Stream & Wetland Mitigation Bank
Davey Resource Group served as the lead consultant for environmental site investigations, design, permitting, implementation, and monitoring of the Bachelor's Delight Stream and Wetland Mitigation Bank in North Carolina.
Project Narrative:
On behalf of Weyerhaeuser Company (owner and Bank Sponsor), Davey Resource Group, Inc. (DRG) served as the lead consultant for environmental site investigations, design, permitting, implementation, and monitoring of the Bachelor's Delight Stream and Wetland Mitigation Bank (an approximate 363-acre wetland and stream mitigation site). The Bank site is located approximately 2 miles north of the City of Jacksonville in Half Moon, Onslow County, North Carolina and includes lands owned by both Weyerhaeuser and NC State University (Hofmann Forest). The project is located in an identified Targeted Local Watershed of the White Oak River Basin and consists predominantly of channelized headwater wetland and stream systems that have been historically altered as a result of silvicultural and agricultural management practices. Streams and waterbodies within the watershed are susceptible to impairment from nutrient loading and low ambient dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations.
Re-establishing Native Conditions
In conjunction with the stream designer, DRG oversaw construction management and planting. Functional uplift to stream reaches and associated adjacent wetlands have been achieved via the re-establishment of natural hydrologic and vegetative conditions that existed prior to the initiation of intensive land management in the early 1970s. Re-establishment of native vegetative communities suited to the landscape position and soil types of the project area provide for enhanced feeding and refuge habitat for resident and migratory species. Restoration and protection (via the conservation easement deed) of the riparian and non-riparian wetlands provide a habitat corridor from expansive wetland flats of Hofmann Forest to downstream bottomland hardwood forests of Bachelors Delight Swamp and New River.