The Stanford Ranch Project, Vernal Pool and Wetland
and Drainage Restoration Project, Rocklin, California.
3,000 acres of
land with 147 acres of jurisdictional wetlands. Of the 147 acres of
jurisdictional wetlands, after careful project redesign, only 15 acres will be
impacted by the proposed development. Huffman & Associates, Inc. was
responsible for:
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Wetland delineation
and verification
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Section 404 (b)(1)
alternative analysis
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401 Water Quality
Certification or waiver
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An approved
Section 404 permit that included a Corps of Engineers approved Wetland
Mitigation Plan and nationwide permits for road and utility line crossings
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Project design and
construction implementation of wetland mitigation including construction of
vernal pools, alkali seeps and drainage swales within a vernal pool
preserve
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Mitigation
monitoring and compliance reporting
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Development and
implementation of a mitigation plan for impacts to fairy shrimp
Mitigation
monitoring is ongoing. Drainage swales originally constructed have successfully
met performance criteria and over 90% of the vernal pools have successfully met
criteria. A Department of the Army Permit was issued to Stanford Ranch in 1989,
which required that Stanford Ranch create 41.81 acres of wetlands to mitigate
for project related wetland impacts. It also required the restoration of alkali
seep wetlands. Wetlands impacted included unique vernal pool habitats. Prior to
the initiation of mitigation construction, detailed studies were conducted by
H&A, Inc. to determine the existing pools vegetation and physiography. The
on site extensive vernal pool areas consist of four types of vernal pools:
floodplain, foot slope, swale and shallow. The relationship between vernal pool
vegetation type and pool depth was used to establish criteria for construction
of mitigation vernal pools which H&A, Inc. supervised. H&A, Inc.
supervised the construction of the vernal pools. The subsequent mitigation
monitoring conducted by H&A, Inc. was developed and multi-disciplinary
effort involving physical and biological elements of vernal pools including
quantitative evaluations of vegetation, hydrology, and water chemistry and
qualitative evaluations of invertebrate usage and bird usage.
