Highway construction often impacts ecology by causing unavoidable losses of wetland areas. Increasingly, wetland losses are being mitigated by creating Banks with wetland deposits in advance of the wetland destruction caused by roadway construction. The Tulula Wetland Mitigation Bank (located in Graham County, west of Asheville on the Tennessee/North Carolina State border) was created to offset impacts of highway projects in western North Carolina, particularly in the Little Tennessee River basin. This wetland is considerably different from most North Carolina wetland mitigation banks (which are primarily coastal) in terms of hydrology, agronomy, flora and fauna.
The goal of this research project is to document the ecological success of the wetlands at Tulula in response to restored hydrology, soils, and vegetation. Data will provide NCDOT an ecological assessment that will be useful for evaluating other wetland restoration projects.
The main objectives of the research project are:
- To determine the success of stream realignment (i.e. relocating the stream) by evaluation the geomorphology (geometric configuration of the geology) of the new channel before and after water is introduced.
- To evaluate changes in ecosystem structure and function in response to a higher water table as the result of site hydrology restoration.
- To evaluate wildlife (frog, salamanders) use of the site in response to a higher water table as the result of site hydrology restoration.
