LAFAYETTE CREEK PROPERTY—PHASES I AND II UMBRELLA REGIONAL MITIGATION PLANS FOR FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS CONCEPTUAL MITIGATION PLAN WALTON COUNTY, FLORIDA June 20, 2011 Prepared for: Mr. David Clayton Northwest Florida Water Management District 81 Water Management Drive Havana, FL 32333 Prepared by: ________________________________ ________________________________ Caitlin E. Elam Richard W. Cantrell Staff Scientist Senior Consultant 4240-034 Y100 Lafayette Creek Phases I and II Restoration Plan 062011_E.doc Lafayette Creek Property—Phases I and II Umbrella Regional Mitigation Plans for Florida Department of Transportation Projects June 20, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 PROJECT OVERVIEW AND GOALS ............................................................................. 1 2.0 LOCATION AND LANDSCAPE ...................................................................................... 2 3.0 EXISTING CONDITIONS ................................................................................................. 2 4.0 LISTED SPECIES ............................................................................................................ 13 5.0 EXOTIC SPECIES ............................................................................................................ 17 6.0 HISTORIC CONDITIONS ............................................................................................... 17 7.0 SOILS ................................................................................................................................ 17 8.0 PROPOSED CONDITIONS ............................................................................................. 20 9.0 RESTORATION PLAN .................................................................................................... 26 9.1 MITIGATION EFFORT ...................................................................................................... 27 9.2 RESTORATION TECHNIQUES ............................................................................................. 28 10.0 UMAM ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 32 10.1 IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES ............................................................................................... 35 10.2 PERFORMANCE CRITERIA ............................................................................................... 35 10.3 LONG-TERM MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................... 35 11.0 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 35 FIGURE Figure 1. Location Map ......................................................................................................................... 3 Figure 2. USGS Quadrangle Map.......................................................................................................... 4 Figure 3A. Current FLUCCS Map Phase I .............................................................................................. 6 Figure 3B. Current FLUCCS Map Phase II ............................................................................................. 7 Figure 4. Historical Aerial 1956 .......................................................................................................... 18 Figure 5. NRCS Soils Map .................................................................................................................. 19 Figure 6A. Proposed FLUCCS Map Phase I .......................................................................................... 22 Figure 6B. Proposed FLUCCS Map Phase II ........................................................................................ 23 Figure 7A. Mitigation Activity Phase I .................................................................................................. 29 Figure 7B. Mitigation Activity Phase II ................................................................................................. 30 Figure 8A. UMAM Assessment Area Phase I ........................................................................................ 33 Figure 8B. UMAM Assessment Area Phase II ...................................................................................... 34 APPENDICES Appendix A. Observed Plant Species Appendix B. Observed and Target Wildlife Species Appendix C. Site Photographs Appendix D. UMAM Assessment i Lafayette Creek Property—Phases I and II Umbrella Regional Mitigation Plans for Florida Department of Transportation Projects June 20, 2011 1.0 PROJECT OVERVIEW AND GOALS Cardno ENTRIX has prepared this restoration plan for Phases I (509.09 Acres) and II (397.86 Acres) within the Lafayette Creek Property (Lafayette Creek) for the Northwest Florida Water Management District (NWFWMD). Historically, the site experienced habitat degradation from less than optimal land management practices, primarily silviculture and fire exclusion/suppression, that is still evident in the community structure of the wetlands and some adjacent uplands. The intent of this plan is to provide a framework for the restoration of wetlands and uplands at Lafayette Creek. This restoration plan was developed in concert with NWFWMD. NWFWMD acquired the 3,160-acre Lafayette Creek tract from M. C. Davis in late 2004 as part of its continuing commitment to protect and preserve NWFWMD water resources. This tract is also a key component of the proposed “Northwest Florida Greenway,” which is intended to provide a natural ecological corridor extending from the Apalachicola National Forest (ANF) westward to Eglin Air Force Base (EAFB). Purchase of this land by NWFWMD eliminated the high probability of future residential and commercial development along this tract given the well drained nature of the on-site uplands. The well drained uplands are the ecological cornerstone of the water resources present on site as all the wetlands and other surface waters originating on Phases I and II are the result of seepage of ground water from the under lying surficial aquifer. Approximately 490 acres of the western portion of the Lafayette Creek tract were purchased explicitly as mitigation for wetland and other surface waters impacts associated with the U. S. Highway 331 (US331) Freeport Realignment and are currently being managed according to the Lafayette Creek Mitigation Parcel Management Plan submitted to the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) in August 2005. The management approach and methods proposed for the wetlands and upland buffers on the 906.95-acre Phases I and II will be similar to those used on the western 490-acre parcel. Phases I and II occur immediately adjacent and east of the original 490-acre mitigation tract. The proposed restoration activities for Phases I and II described in this report are intended to provide wetland mitigation credits for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to offset wetland impacts within FDOT District 3 and during the US331 realignment in Walton County. The wetland mitigation potential of Phase III will be assessed at a later date with results and recommendations submitted under separate cover. Ultimately, long-term ecological management will be implemented seamlessly across the entire Lafayette Creek tract. The wetland mitigation and community boundary limits were established by Cardno ENTRIX and NWFWMD. This report provides an overview of current and historic site conditions as well as a conceptual mitigation plan for lands currently slated for mitigation. This review utilized interpretation of 2010 and historic aerial photography (primarily 1956), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soil survey maps, Florida Land Use Cover Classification System maps (FLUCCS), Florida Native Areas Inventory (FNAI) vegetative community concepts, National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) data and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) rule 62-340 Florida Administrative Code (FAC). Field work was conducted to ground-truth aerial interpretations, provide community structure and composition data, and to assess each community’s restoration potential. Restoration assessment areas were aerially delineated based on these data using ArcView GIS 9.0. The prescribed restoration plan is based on the evaluation of these data. Both common and scientific botanical names follow Wunderlin and Hansen (2003); see references in Section 11.0. The authorities of scientific names can be obtained in this reference, and therefore, are not 1 Lafayette Creek Property—Phases I and II Umbrella Regional Mitigation Plans for Florida Department of Transportation Projects June 20, 2011 included in this report. Plant community concepts follow the FLUCCS classification system with further refinement using FNAI concepts. 2.0 LOCATION AND LANDSCAPE Lafayette Creek (Sections 4, 5, and 6; Township 01S, Range 18W; 30° 31’ 23.67’’ North and 86° 04’ 00.00’’ West) is located between US331 and Highway 81, north of Highway 20, in Walton County, Florida; see Figure 1. It is within 1.5 miles of the City of Freeport, and approximately 1.4 miles from the 4-lane US331 realignment. This watershed lies within the Southern Pine Hills District in the Western Highlands physiographic province and near the upper limit of the Gulf Coastal Lowlands physiographic province. The Western Highlands are a series of rolling, stream-dissected hills formed primarily on the Citronelle Formation siliciclastic sediments. The rolling topography of the highlands