A (Five-Minute) Case Study: Brooklyn Union Gas Wetland Mitigation Bill Young, Young Environmental, LLC 1/24/2011 Upenn School of Design 1 Army Corps of Engineers and Port Authority of NY and NJ East River Meadowlands Marsh Resources Intl Alley Creek Passaic River Hudson River NY-NJ Harbor Estuary ProjectFLUSHING Sites RIVER Newark Bay NEWTOWN CREEK Upper Harbor MITIGATION BUG PAERDEGAT * ELDER’S * * POINT BASIN Jamaica* Bay Arthur Kill Lower Harbor FK TRANSFER STATION Raritan Bay Keyspan, Brooklyn Union Gas, National Grid 2006-7, 10 acres, $6.6 million Monitoring ongoing High marsh Preserve Low marsh Proposed Grading Spartina alterniflora: Tolerates flooding Tolerates salinity Phragmites australis: Tolerates flooding Does not tolerate salinity Stevens Institute Construction Sequence: 1. Spray Phragmites 2x (ok 1) 2. Protect outer marsh along Old Place Creek 3. Excavate root mat/Phrag to 1 foot below tidal elevations 4. Place one foot of sand to match tidal elevations (use lasers on machines to grade accurately) 5. Seed all zones 6. Install matting on Maritime, high marsh and interplanting marsh 7. Write memo begging no matting in low marsh (granted) 8. Plant grass plugs in maritime zone 9. Plant Spartina, Distichlis and Iva in high, low and Interplanting marshes 10. Plant shrubs in Maritime zone 11. Replant bare spots, place sand in low spots, pull and spray weeds, repeat. BUG (Keyspan) Site, Staten Island NY Planting low and high marsh, and Maritime scrub shrub Creating Maritime Scrub zone: Place clean sand, rake, seed, install coir matting, and then plant through the matting one and two-gallon shrubs. MARITIME SCRUB: Pinus rigida Quercus marilandica, stellata Morella pennsylvanica Prunus maritima Rhus typhina R copallinum Rosa palustris Celtis occidentalis Diospyros virginiana Scientific Name Common Qty Iva and Baccharis Panicum virgatum Switchgrass 4,200 Schizachyrium scoparium Little bluestem 920 PLUS GRASSES AND HERBSSorghastrum nutans Indiangrass 920 Andropogon gerardii Big bluestem 920 May 2007. Open patches need replanting Plugs Seed planted volunteering July 2006 on site Tributaries dug by hand to drain flat grades “Velvet” is a sign of poor drainage Mobile conveyor used to spot place sand to fill low spots and create pitch Standing water: great habitat, but no grow zone Spartina alterniflora (low marsh) Phragmites Spartina patens and Distlichlis spicata Nature has great fidelity. Where conditions are right, plants thrive, where not, they may survive, and where wrong, they decline and die. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) permit requires that all plantings will have an 85% survival and coverage rate for native salt marsh vegetation, which must be metFor or that exceeded at the end of the growing season. If at the end of the growing(Howland season the 7.8 acres of Hook) monitoring data revealedwetland mitigationthat the required 85% survival and coverage requirements had not been met than corrective actions will be initiated. This is where the rhizomal spread comes in Low and high marsh, post planting, summer 2007 Monitoring •Percent cover •Ht of plants •Rhizomal spread •Basal diameter •Number of stems (1/4 of quadrat) •Number of flowering stems •Presence of invasives •Sediment accumulation •Snails, Fiddler crabs, ribbed mussel Marsh Resources InternationalNJ Turnpike 100-acre restoration Phragmites Hackensack River • Tidal flow introduced to a poorly flooded Phragmites marsh (like above). • Tributaries dug to introduce water from Hackensack River. Designed by Louis Berger Source: Odum and Ewell Ecosystems of Florida Ribbed Mussels: Good Indicators Using Evaluation for Planned Wetlands to Determine Functional Value (which translates to Credits) Wetland Function Key SB = Shoreline Anchoring (quality of land/water interface) SS = Sediment Stabilization (erosion prone or stable?) WQ = Water Quality (polluted or clean?) WL = Wildlife (low or high quality?) FS = Fish Habitat (poor, fair, good or excellent?) UH = Uniqueness/Heritage (special value?) Table 1 FCI and FCU Calculations Garbisch, Krauss, et al Evaluation for Planned Wetlands (EPW) 10/3/2010 Young Environmental, LLC 23 10/3/2010 Environmental Connection, LLC 25 NOAA Wetland Mitigation Calculator Definition of Terms The mitigation ratio calculator requires users to estimate, or settle upon, acceptable values of the following parameters: A The level of wetland function per acre at the mitigation site prior to the mitigation project, expressed as a percentage of the function per acre of the impacted wetland; B The maximum level of wetland function per acre that the mitigation is expected to attain, if it is successful, expressed as a percentage of the level of function of the impacted wetland; C The number of years after construction that the mitigation project is expected to achieve maximum function; D The number of years before destruction of the original wetland that the mitigation project begins to generate mitigation values (positive values represent advanced mitigation; negative values represent delayed mitigation); E The percent likelihood that the mitigation project will fail and provide none of the anticipated benefits (with mitigation failure, wetland values at the mitigation site are assumed to return to level A) L The percent difference in expected wetland values based on differences in landscape context of the mitigation site when compared with the impacted wetland (positive values represent a more favorable landscape context at mitigation site) r The discount rate used for adjusting wetland service flows that accrue at different times to their "present value". Tmax The time horizon used in the analysis (Using most values of r (above) time horizons beyond t=75 years are of negligible significance) Maritime Low marsh High Marsh Preserve marsh Transition Elder’s Point JamaicaWhat ifBay I had ten minutes?? Pump dredged sand to restore historic footprint of shrunken island.