Ranarium Forest and Wetland Mitigation Site - In September of 2010, Ecotone began construction to restore approximately 11 acres of nontidal forested wetlands on the Deer Creek floodplain in Baltimore County, Maryland. The wetland restoration design calls for the removal of fill and drainage ditches implemented in the past to allow the floodplain areas to utilized for agricultural crop production. The entire wetland and riparian area will be planted with a diverse mix of lowland trees, shrubs, grasses, rushes, sedges and forbs. The +/- 82 acre Ranarium property straddles Harris Mill Road, and to date, approximately 21 acres of upland reforestation has occurred, and the existing forest on the site has been preserved in perpetuity. In addition, much of the reforestation area has been planted with herbaceous species to establish seed, fruit, tubers, forbs and grasses to provide a year round wildlife food source for a variety of game and non-game species. To help demonstrate the project benefits to trout habitat in Deer Creek, Ecotone has been monitoring water temperature in several areas throughout the property to compare pre- and post-construction conditions. The efforts at Ranarium have attracted the attention of County and State agencies, who recently conducted an electro-shocking fish survey on the property to inventory the wild trout population within the reach of Deer Creek that traverses the property.
		Wooly Bugger Farm - Ecotone has procured all of the required Federal, State and local permits for the Wooly Bugger Farm stream and wetland mitigation site in Baltimore County, and is presently searching for funding sources to allow implementation of this significant habitat restoration project. The project will focus on restoring hydrology to the riparian corridor by raising the inverts of the two degraded unnamed tributaries to Piney Run, an MDE Use III Natural Trout Stream. Through raising the stream bed inverts and removing accumulated upland sediments in the floodplain, the streams will be re-connected to their historical floodplain, creating a more natural flow regime conducive to stable stream channel and floodplain conditions. In addition, pockets of nontidal wetland will be created on the floodplain, typical of undisturbed conditions in the piedmont region. Stream restoration will be achieved using Natural Channel Design techniques, and will include innovative stabilization and habitat enhancement measures specific to the brown and brook trout populations found within the Piney Run watershed. The entire site will be planted with native species to create a continuous block of forested wetlands and floodplain contiguous with upland forest planting areas previously installed on the site by Ecotone.
Nixon Farm Wetland Restoration - In September 2010, Ecotone completed the wetland and stream channel restoration grading at the Maryland State Highway Administration's Nixon Farm Wetland Mitigation site. The project consisted of restoring approximately 10 acres of nontidal forested and emergent wetland, 800 linear feet of intermittent stream channel, and 9 acres of hardwood forest. Located in Howard County, Maryland, the site serves as mitigation for unavoidable impacts to wetland, stream and forest resources associated with upgrades to MD Route 32. Ecotone's experienced environmental construction crew installed highly specialized design items, including log and rock cross vanes, cobble weirs, earthen plugs, inverted root wads and standing snags. In addition, a system of interlocking wooden mats was created to transport materials and equipment to the project area while protecting fragile wetland areas in the process.
		EMOC Wetland Mitigation Design and Permitting - The site upon which the state of the art EMOC facility is to be built, near the western end of the Inter-County Connector, is fragmented by three first order tributaries to Mill Creek, in the Upper Rock Creek watershed, classified as Recreational Trout Waters (Use IV) By the Maryland Department of the Environment. Ecotone worked with the site planning team to help them come up with a site layout that had minimal impacts to streams and wetlands, and provided mitigation for all of those impacts on-site.  The work included wetland delineation, groundwater monitoring, soils analysis, wetland and waterways permitting and wetland restoration design.  The project is slated for construction in spring of 2011.
Rockland Ridge Emergency Erosion Repair – During torrential rains in the early summer of 2010, a large gully formed in the Rockland Ridge community as a result of a failed sediment control facility. Ecotone was contacted by the owner to create a design for the eroded channel, gain approval from the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management, and construct the stable channel in a very short period of time. Within five weeks, Ecotone had completed the work, saving the client more than $20,000 in the process. The project included constructing Cascade Step Pool structures in the eroded channel, installing cobble gravel mix in the channel bottom, and stabilizing disturbed hillside areas with erosion control fabric.
		Falling Spring Restoration at the Powers Property - Ecotone worked with the late landowner, Mr. Galen Powers and his widow to create a design that would improve habitat for trout on the property and integrate the gardens into the more natural stream setting favored by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.  Stream habitat restoration measures included narrowing the channel to improve velocities and help maintain riffle and pool morphology, installing “lunker structures” to provide cover for trout species, creating roller eddies and converging rock clusters, and improved overall stream cover through the use of soil lifts and live branch layering that will establish a dense shrub border to provide habitat for terrestrial species and provide shade to the stream.  Construction and planting was completed in May 2010, and trout were seen re-colonizing the site before the project was completed.
Sage Gut Stream and Wetland Offsite Mitigation - Ecotone performed the design and permitting for the Sage Gut/PCS Phosphate off-site mitigation project, located in Beaufort County, North Carolina. The recently-constructed project restored approximately 5,400 linear feet of headwater coastal plain stream, 105 acres of riparian and non-riparian wetlands, and 14 acres of riparian buffer, and preserved over 1,000 feet of existing stream and 1.5 acres of existing wetland. The project is being undertaken to mitigate for proposed impacts caused by the PCS Phosphate Mine Expansion in nearby Aurora. Stream restoration consisted of restoring typical headwater “swamp run” morphology to areas in agricultural production that had been ditched and drained. Wetlands with variable hydroperiods were restored on the site by plugging ditches, removing drain tile and lightly grading the existing agricultural areas to return the ground to a more natural state.
		Porter Run Stream Stabilization - In October 2009, Ecotone completed the restoration of approximately 1,080 linear feet of stream in LaVale, Maryland under the direction of the Allegany County Department of Public Works and the Allegany Soil Conservation District.  The restoration efforts included reconfiguration of the channel planform, installation of numerous rock cross vane structures, floodplain grading, and bioengineering practices.  As part of this restoration effort Ecotone also installed 600 feet of imbricated wall to protect the stream from a 60 vertical foot slope failure.