Agenda - Planning Commission - 06/05/2003

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Wildlife Habitat: Several strategies are proposed to mitigate impacts to wildlife. These include: 1). EstabIish Greenwa¥ Corridor Though the Site. A proposed greenway corridor is shown in Figures 6.1, 12.5 and 12.6. The corridor will incorporate a system of wetland treatment ponds, infiltration ponds and constructe4 wetlands. Areas of the corridor up to the 100-year flood elevation will be planted to a mixture of native short grasses and forbs. Although this corridor will not extend though the site completely, it will provide, an opportunity for some species (those more tolerant of human presence, noise, etc:) to use natural areas within the site, and to move to and from larger tracks of habitat connected to the site. 2). Wetland Restoration and Creation. As described in Item I2, the combination of existing wetlands and created wetlands will provide more diverse habitat than is generally available now. Most of the existing wetlands have either been cropped or have very low vegetative diversity (primarily reed canary =owass). These wetlands Mil be restored to native wet prairie, wet meadow and shallow emergent marsh. Wetlands within the RTC portion of the greenway will be planted to shorter species of grass and forbs, but will be un-mown, and wilI provide habitat for many of the wetland species currently found on the RTC site. Additional areas of riparian buffer will be established to provide some upland habitat. 3). CUlverts and Road Crossings. To the extent possible, ail culverts and road crossings will be designed to enable upstream or downstream passage of wildlife as they move though the greenway. During dry conditions, most of the culverts are expected to be available for terrestrial species ~o move though. During wet conditions, these culverts may only enable species that swim or move through water to pass through. Fences at major road crossing will be desi=o-ned and placed so as to funnel wildlife though these crossing areas. These same fences may also be used to discourage larger species, such as white-tailed deer, from crossing roads where they may become a traffic hazard. Blanding's Turtles Strategies outlined for Wildlife Mitigation generally apply to Blanding's turtles. Appendix C is the DNR Fact Sheet and Hand-out on Blanding's Turtles. Several additional recommendations applying to Blanding's turtles follow: 1). The system of infiltration ponds and wetlands proposed south of the RTC site between TH 10 and the Mississippi River can be designed to provide additional turtle habitat. This system, if developed, should incorporate some deep, over-winter'pond area along with a good diversity of wetland community types. Some excavated material should be retained on-site to create sandy, dune-like areas planted to sand gravel prairies. These areas could provide excellent ne.sting habitat for Blanding's turtles. 236