Environment - Biology

Project Overview

Viewing platform with educational sign.

The 11.3-acre Moses Lake Wetland Mitigation Bank (Moses Lake Bank) is located within the City of Moses Lake in Grant County and was WSDOT’s first fully operational mitigation banking project. The site is owned by the City of Moses Lake and is currently managed and operated by WSDOTPlanning for the Moses Lake Bank began in 1999, construction was completed in 2001, and the Mitigation Bank Instrument (pdf 1.87 mb) was signed in June of 2003. The site is protected in perpetuity by a conservation easement obtained by WSDOT in 2002.  The City will take over long-term management of the site in 2007 and will continue to manage and maintain the site, guided by WSDOT, until at least 2018.

Expected Use

The Moses Lake Bank site has been established to provide advance compensatory mitigation for unavoidable impacts to wetlands from future highway construction projects within the Columbia Basin, including portions of five Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIA 36, 41, 42, 43, and 44). Three transportation projects have withdrawn credits from the bank to date, SR 26, E Southwest to Adam’s County line (0.25 acres), SR 26 Vantage area to Royal City (0.19 acres), and SR 17, Pioneer Way to Stratford Park (.857). One additional Grant County Public Works project used 0.042 credits in 2004. Over the lifetime of the site, five credits will potentially be generated. Three credits have been released to date and 1.641 credits are available for use. Credits are released as outlined in chapter 4 of the MBI.

Ecological Goals

The primary goals of the Moses Lake Bank are to restore and enhance a degraded urban wetland, improve wildlife habitat, and to provide educational opportunities to the local community. These goals are being achieved through removal of fill, enlarging open water habitat, establishing native plant communities, and installation of a viewing platform and interpretive sign. Achievement of project goals will significantly increase wetland functions on the site. The mitigation activities will restore 0.5 acres of historical wetland and significantly improve functions on the remaining 10.8 acres of wetland.