The Carolina Bay Restoration Project - Status Report II 2000-2004.

A Wetlands Mitigation Bank was established at SRS in 1997 as a compensatory alternative for unavoidable wetland losses. Prior to restoration activities, 16 sites included in the project were surveyed for the SRS Site Use system to serve as a protective covenant. Pre-restoration monitoring ended in Fall 2000, and post restoration monitoring began in the Winter/Spring of 2001. The total interior harvest in the 16 bays after harvesting the trees was 19.6 ha. The margins in the opencanopy, pine savanna margin treatments were thinned. Margins containing areas with immature forested stands (bay 5184 and portions of bay 5011) were thinned using a mechanical shredder in November 2001. Over 126 hectares were included in the study areas (interior + margin). Planting of two tree species and the transplanting of wetland grass species was successful. From field surveys, it was estimated that approximately 2700 Nyssa sylvatica and 1900 Taxodium distichum seedlings were planted in the eight forested bays resulting in an average planting density of ≈ 490 stems ha-1. One hundred seedlings of each species per bay (where available) were marked to evaluate survivability and growth. Wetland grass species were transplanted from donor sites on SRS to plots that ranged in size from 100 – 300 m2, depending on wetland size. On 0.75 and 0.6 meter centers, respectively, 2198 plugs of Panicum hemitomon and 3021 plugs Leersia hexandra were transplanted. New shoots originating from the stumps were treated with a foliar herbicide (Garlon® 4) during the summer of 2001 using backpack sprayers. Preliminary information from 2000-2004 regarding the hydrologic, vegetation and faunal response to restoration is presented in this status report. Post restoration monitoring will continue through 2005. A final report to the Mitigation Bank Review Team will be submitted in mid-2006