Copperas Stream Mitigation Bank
Location
Logan County, WV
Resource
Stream
Solution
Mitigation Bank
Status
Approved
Kevin Roush
Assistant Director of Business Development
COPPERAS STREAM MITIGATION BANK is located in the coalfields of scenic Logan County, West Virginia. Over several years of restoration work, EIP restored the Bank’s degraded streams by decommissioning and relocating roads, enhanced headwater and valley bottom streams by adding woody material and removing berms that cut off floodplain flow, and re-established riparian buffers. All of this work allowed native flora and fauna to proliferate — including, for the first time in West Virginia’s history, a rare and critically imperiled plant species called Appalachian rosinweed (Silphium wasiotense).
EIP also partnered with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) to provide 4,391 acres associated with the Copperas bank to expand a state Wildlife Management Area (WMA). At this newly minted Tomblin Wildlife Management Area, the DNR re-established elk (Cervus canadensis) herds. Once native in West Virginia, elk were extirpated in the 1800s. In part through EIP’s restoration, they are now thriving here. EIP’s site will now help elk herds grow, protect key habitat areas, and improve public access.
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Credit purchases from Copperas Mitigation Bank support a diverse range of projects in West Virginia, including road construction, mining, and public infrastructure.
READ MORE
West Virginia’s Elk Herd Adds 15 Calves in 2020
Sept 19, 2020 | WV Division of Natural Resources
CREDITS AVAILABLE
Stream
SERVICE AREA
Primary HUC 8 Watershed
– Upper Guyandotte (05070101)
Secondary HUC 8 Watersheds
– Tug Fork (05070201)
– Lower Guyandotte (05070102)
– Twelvepole (05090102)
– Big Sandy (05070204)
– Coal (05050009)
– Lower New (05050004)
– Middle New (05050002)
Our Partners
Appalachian Stream Restoration & Reclamation Specialists, an industry leader in central Appalachia, contributed key construction experience and regional knowledge as we’ve partnered with them to restore streams across West Virginia and Maryland. ASR’s equipment operators include many individuals who transitioned their skills seamlessly from mining to stream restoration, with creativity and dedication.
Civil & Environmental Consultants Inc. partnered with EIP’s national team, applying their regional expertise in stream ecology, design, and permitting to multiple mitigation banks we developed together across West Virginia.