World Wetlands Day aims to raise national and global awareness about the importance of wetlands and efforts to restore and conserve these critically important environments.
On this day, RK&K’s Natural Resources team reaffirms their commitment to protecting wetlands through efficient environmental assessments, technical expertise, strong relationships with regulators, innovative data collection, and an emphasis on quality.
The team recently completed a wetland mitigation site at the Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge in Wilmington, Delaware, providing civil design, environmental permitting, advertisement documents and federal, state and local approvals. They used bio-benchmark data to set design elevations and two-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling to ensure adequate tidal connectivity enhancing over 13 acres of freshwater tidal emergent wetlands.
They are currently monitoring the site using innovative technology to ensure the project successfully enhances wetlands and our field team is working safely.
Portions of the site are not safe to access due to deep, unconsolidated mud, so the team used a drone to capture low-altitude photographs of each monitoring plot which can be analyzed by wetland scientists without compromising their safety.
The Natural Resources team provided civil design, environmental permitting, advertisement documents and federal, state and local approvals for the wetland mitigation site at the Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge in Wilmington.
The team also designed tidal wetland restoration and living shoreline protection along Pepper Creek at the Delaware Botanic Gardens in Sussex County, providing fetch modeling, civil design, environmental permitting, and regulatory coordination. They included provisions for safe aquatic life passage through shoreline structures to ensure successful diamond back terrapin nesting and included contract provisions to protect marsh nesting birds and a nearby bald eagle nest. Construction is scheduled for the fall of 2023.
RK&K is tasked with stabilizing and enhancing the eroding marsh condition at the Delaware Botanic Gardens in Sussex County.
Wetlands contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability, and world economies so projects like these are important to reduce their rapid loss and encourage actions to conserve and restore them.
Contact us today for more information on RK&K’s Natural Resources team and our wetlands work.
