Mille Lacs Meadows (North, South, and West) Mitigation Banks

Location

Aitken County, MN

Resource

Wetland

Solution

Mitigation Bank

Status

Approved

Tim Smith

Upper Midwest Representative

MILL LACS MEADOWS (NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST) MITIGATION BANKS proposes to establish a wetland mitigation bank and generate wetland credits by disabling an existing surface drainage system and restoring native plant communities. The restoration activities will reestablish and rehabilitate more than 400 acres of former fresh (wet) meadow wetlands and partially restore (rehabilitate) an additional 9.6 acres of existing wetlands.

The long-term hydrologic goal of the site is to restore wetland hydrology indicative of fresh (wet) meadow and shrub-carr wetlands within areas that were formerly wetland. To achieve this goal, wetland hydrology will disable more than 15 miles of drainage ditches located within the proposed easement. All of these ditches drain from the property south towards Lake Mille Lacs. These onsite ditches are relatively small and shallow in depth but are closely spaced and effectively drain the site to allow for agricultural land use. Removal of the drainage ditches should restore unaltered hydrology to the bank, allowing wetland conditions to return to the site.

CREDITS
Wetland Compensatory wetland mitigation USFWS Circular 39 and Cowardin types
(Type 2) Fresh (wet) meadow
(Type 3) Shallow Marsh

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Our Partners

Beaver Creek Hydrology’s expert team understands the complexities of stream restoration and addresses them with the highest degree of innovation and creativity. They work with EIP to help design large-scale stream restoration projects across the country.  BCH, one of the leading stream design firms in the country, invented the natural channel design software, BANKFULL, that efficiently tackles our large-scale projects. They have published and presented widely about hydrologic and hydraulic modeling.

SEH

Short Elliot Hendrickson, Inc. (SEH) has worked with EIP on their three other wetland banks in Minnesota and continues that collaborative approach at the Mille Lacs Meadows Site.  The company’s extensive experience with wetland banking in Minnesota and Wisconsin and their highly skilled team of ecologists, biologists, and engineers has formulated a plan to disable over 18 miles of ditches and restore wetland.  The SEH team is also working closely with Beaver Creek Hydrology, another EIP partner, to obtain Corps of Engineers approval for the planned restoration of Reddy Creek, a headwater stream that flows through the site towards Lake Mille Lacs.

Midwest-Amphibious-Equipment-partner-logo

Midwest Amphibious Equipment has been an integral EIP partner from the beginning of our Minnesota work. MAE’s visionary founder Steve Gilbertson recognized the opportunity to perform large-scale wetland restoration to service Minnesota’s Iron Range region, and innovated amphibious equipment tools and techniques specific to Minnesota’s wetland environments. MAE has managed the construction of EIP’s three Minnesota mitigation banks.

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Aquic Stream and Wetland Mitigation Strategies has been working with EIP since 2021 to identify, pursue, and deliver mitigation solutions in the Upper Midwest.  Aquic’s extensive knowledge of the state and federal regulatory programs in the region and in-depth understanding of the mitigation markets is a compliment to EIP’s proven approach for delivering verified and cost-effective mitigation solutions.  Aquic provides operational support for EIP mitigation banks in Minnesota and Wisconsin and assists permittees with credit transactions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Kentucky.
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