DCR-DNH has developed a catalog of potential wetland restoration sites, within or adjacent to Natural Heritage Conservation Sites. This catalogue is intended to guide localities and regulatory agencies to appropriate sites for various conservation purposes including wetland mitigation.
These prior-converted wetland patches occur on a mix of private and public lands and property information has not been referenced. The wetland restoration opportunities have not been field verified. Additional property research and site evaluation will be necessary to determine which areas are suitable candidates for restoration. Nevertheless these sites represent high-probability opportunities to design and implement high-value wetland restoration projects. Because these sites fall within sensitive biological conservation sites, DCR requests coordination for any proposed mitigation actions. Please contact the project review coordinator at 804-371-2708 or rene.hypes@dcr.virginia.govNatural Heritage Conservation sites larger than 500 acres with a biodiversity rank of B1 (outstanding significance), B2 (very high significance) and B3 (high significance) were selected. The original (2006) potential wetland restoration sites were selected by Chief Biologist, J. Christopher Ludwig who reviewed each conservation site against 2002 Virginia Basemap aerial photography, National Wetland Inventory wetland coverage, and other GIS datasets. Chris has visited many of these sites and used his personal experience, as well as his photo-interpretation skills, to delineate patches of land that appeared to be converted wetlands and also had a high potential for restoration. Polygons were delineated in an ArcView shapefile. In most cases these polygons terminated at the edge of a conservation site even if the converted area seemed to extend over the conservation site boundary.
Natural Heritage recently incorporated the 2006/2007 aerial photography into the Division's database. The availability of these updated photographs allowed for an opportunity to update the original Wetland Restoration Catalog. All 121 of the original potential wetland restoration sites were viewed against the most current aerial photography. Each original site was also reviewed to confirm if the site was still within a B1 through B3 conservation site of over 500 acres. Then, additional potential wetland restoration sites were selected using the methodology described above. Many of the original sites were modified to extend past the conservation site boundary if the converted area continued past this boundary. All new and modified potential wetland restoration sites were reviewed by Chief Biologist, J. Christopher Ludwig before being incorporated into the catalog.
New and updated information is continually added to the Natural Heritage database. The information within this document is current as of December 2008.
10 B1, 84 B2, and 24 B3 potential restoration sites were developed. 92 of the 118 sites are located within the coastal zone. Sites range in size from 1.3 acres to 2484.3 acres. A PDF document showing the Potential Wetland Restoration Sites is available online, click here to see the updated 2008 catalog. You'll need the free Adobe acrobat reader to read and/or download this file (52MG).
Degraded wetland site overrun with Phragmites.
Same site 2 years later, after beginning restoration activities. For additional information, including obtaining a GIS shapefile of the Natural Heritage Wetland Restoration catalog sites, please contact:
Kristal McKelvey, Coastal Zone Locality Liaison
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