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The Stanford Ranch Project, Vernal Pool and Wetland and Drainage Restoration Project

Rocklin, California

3,000 acres of land with 147 acres of jurisdictional wetlands. Of the 147 acres of jurisdictional wetlands, after careful project redesign, only 15 acres will be impacted by the proposed development. 7Q10 was responsible for:

• Wetland delineation and verification
• Section 404 (b)(1) alternative analysis
• 401 Water Quality Certification or waiver
• An approved Section 404 permit that included a Corps of Engineers approved Wetland Mitigation Plan and nationwide permits for road and utility line crossings
• Project design and construction implementation of wetland mitigation including construction of vernal pools, alkali seeps and drainage swales within a vernal pool preserve
• Mitigation monitoring and compliance reporting
• Development and implementation of a mitigation plan for impacts to fairy shrimp

Mitigation monitoring is ongoing. Drainage swales originally constructed have successfully met performance criteria and over 90% of the vernal pools have successfully met criteria. A Department of the Army Permit was issued to Stanford Ranch in 1989, which required that Stanford Ranch create 41.81 acres of wetlands to mitigate for project related wetland impacts. It also required the restoration of alkali seep wetlands. Wetlands impacted included unique vernal pool habitats. Prior to the initiation of mitigation construction, detailed studies were conducted by H&A, Inc. to determine the existing pools vegetation and physiography. The on site extensive vernal pool areas consist of four types of vernal pools: floodplain, foot slope, swale and shallow. The relationship between vernal pool vegetation type and pool depth was used to establish criteria for construction of mitigation vernal pools which H&A, Inc. supervised. H&A, Inc. supervised the construction of the vernal pools. The subsequent mitigation monitoring conducted by H&A, Inc. was developed and multi-disciplinary effort involving physical and biological elements of vernal pools including quantitative evaluations of vegetation, hydrology, and water chemistry and qualitative evaluations of invertebrate usage and bird usage.