Our Solution
WSSI’s detailed evaluations of site characteristics, natural resources, and topography provided the information our engineers, scientists, and ecosystem specialists needed to design the best possible wetland mitigation ecosystems, restoring high-value functionality to degraded lands and preserving existing mature forested bottomlands.
Each tract of Cedar Run has unique design elements. For example, Phase 2 allows for preservation of emergent wetlands by incorporating them into the construction design and enhancing them through the planting of trees and shrubs. Phase 2A, on the other hand, contains open water areas and complex mosaics of emergent, scrub-shrub, and forested wetlands that further enhance habitat and wildlife diversity.
Cedar Run’s wetland functionality is readily apparent. During monitoring, WSSI staff discovered presence of two dozen volunteer wetland-associated plant species, demonstrating that the conditions in these wetlands support the establishment and success of this hydrophytic plant community without long-term active management. Cedar Run Wetlands Bank has also become home to many reptile, bird, and mammal species. All phases host thousands of breeding frogs and toads in the spring, and they attract more than 125 wetland-dependent bird species such as herons, egrets, waterfowl, gulls, and shorebirds, as well as northern harriers, osprey, hawks, falcons, and bald eagles. The mammal population includes deer, beaver, muskrats, foxes, and coyotes.
