Agenda - Planning Commission - 05/01/2003

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2). Wetland Restoration and Creation. As described in Item 12, 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 grass). These wetlands will 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 will provide habitat for many of the wetland species cun'ently 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, all 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 to.move though.- D/aring wet condi.tions, these culverts may only enable species that swim or move through water to pass through. Fences at major road crossing will be designed 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 nesting habitat for Blanding's turtles: 2). Culvert crossings should be designed so that water (when flowing) flows continuously though the pipe, with no physical barriers such as weirs or gates blocking upstream or downstream travel. 3). Fencing may be used to guide or block movement. Depending on the final design of the greenway/stormwater conveyance system, access to the site by turtles should be blocked to reduce the possibility that the site will become a sink to nearby turtle populations. D-g- 35