Wetland Reserve Plans of Operation

Under three separate task orders from the USACE Jacksonville District and in coordination with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Taylor Engineering is preparing Wetland Reserve Plans of Operation (WRPO), construction plans and specifications, and permit applications for three separate properties totaling over 10,000 acres in south Florida. Extensive drainage and agricultural activities (cattle grazing and cane, citrus, sod, and other crop production) beginning in the 1940s destroyed nearly all of the historic wetland and native communities (wet prairie, marsh, dry prairie and hardwood hammocks) on the properties. The NRCS has acquired easements bringing the properties into the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) or Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (which replaced the WRP in February 2014). Each WRPO is a conservation plan that identifies how ecological functions and values will be restored, enhanced, protected and managed to accomplish the NRCS objectives for each easement. The WRPO and associated Habitat Restoration and Management Plan include all required conservation practices and activities necessary to achieve wetland restoration goals, allow limited landowner use (including hunting, fishing, and low intensity cattle grazing), and facilitate long‐term management of the restored easement. WRPO development includes several related efforts: identification and mapping of historic wetland communities (forming the basis for identification of target restoration wetland communities and hydrologic conditions), hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to determine existing hydrologic conditions and develop alternative restoration plans, selection of a restoration alternative, estimation of restored wetland community distribution, identification of permitting requirements and preparation of permit applications, and preparation of construction plans and specifications.