Floodplain and Tidal Wetland Restoration in the Sacramento Valley
Westervelt Ecological Services (WES) has received federal approval of the Zacharias Ranch Mitigation Bank (Zacharias Ranch) in southern Sacramento County.
Teams are building man-made beaver dams to restore habitat at Colorado's Soda Creek
How do you change dried-up farmland back into the wetlands it used to be? Follow the beavers' lead.
Sipsey River Mitigation Bank Receives Agency Approval
Westervelt Ecological Services (WES) has received approval for the Sipsey River Mitigation Bank (SRMB) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM).
Westervelt Ecological Services Expands with Acquisition of American Mitigation Company
Westervelt Ecological Services is pleased to announce the acquisition of American Mitigation Company (AMC), based in South Carolina.
MITIGATION BANKING AND ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION: BALANCING NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT WITH WESTERVELT ECOLOGICAL SERVICES
Threatened Frog Spotted in Mosquito Fire Burn Scar
Almost a year has passed since the Mosquito Fire roared through the American River Canyon just outside the small northern California community of Foresthill. Steep hillsides covered in oak and pine trees, shrubs and grasses went up in flames. The fire started on September 6, 2022, and burned for 46 days, destroying homes and small businesses and blackening more than 76,000 acres of National Forest and privately-owned lands. But a recent visit to the burn area provided some hope to wildlife biologists. A small population of California red-legged frogs, a threatened species, survived the fire.
Post-fire survival of the threatened California red-legged frog
Fire in the landscape is a natural disturbance factor to which native species have evolved, particularly in the western United States (Pilliod et al. 2003; Jager et al. 2021). Large-scale wildfires can temporarily reduce thatch, directly kill wildlife, change soil chemistry, facilitate immigration and emigration, open otherwise closed habitats, redistribute vegetation communities, reduce, or eliminate some habitat types, and have other positive or negative impacts (Romme 1982; Pease et al. 1989; Pilliod et al. 2003; Smucker et al. 2005; Rochester et al. 2010).
Colorado Mitigation Procedures
The recently implemented Colorado Mitigation Procedures, Colorado Stream Quantification Tool and mitigation banking have greatly improved how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District’s Denver Regulatory Office analyzes permit applications under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
The COMP, developed by Colorado regulatory offices, provides regulatory specialists with a framework to objectively evaluate a wetland or a stream’s functional condition by providing a measurable and repeatable method of calculating debits and credits for wetland and waterway impacts caused by permitted activities.
