Transplants: The New Face of Wetland Mitigation

Wetland compensation has been occurring for years, but now scientists from Sweet Briar College are trying to save a vernal pool by performing a wetland transplant to an area away from a planned new development.

In Piney River, Virginia, scientists are attempting to transplant a wetland, rather than trying to create a new one to compensate for a wetland lost to development. The vernal pools at the Boxley Materials Company quarry in Piney River are old, unique to the region, and home to the mole salamander, listed as a species of special concern in Virginia. The vernal pool transplant will preserve the top layer of soil, which is rich with plant seeds, algal spores, and eggs as well as an individual mix of chemicals from leaf litter and other material that give each vernal pool its signature identity. So strong is a pool's identity that for some species, the pool of its birth is the only place it will go to reproduce. With the transplant, creatures of the little ecosystem will find that the new wetland will smell, taste, and feel like home. 

Boxley, a Roanoke-based company that quarries and produces material such as concrete and crushed stone for construction, has revised its planned expansion plan to preserve as many vernal pools as it can and to transplant one. The estimated total project cost is $5,000 to $6,000, with the help of heavy machinery donated by Boxley and volunteer labor. The transplant involves harvesting clay from another vernal pool that is no longer fully functional. That clay will be used to create a new bowl in an area on Boxley property away from the expansion. Next, the layer of top soil will be dug up from the transplant wetland, just like sod for grass, and transplanted to the new bowl by volunteers. The final step will come in the spring when the salamanders emerge from their burrows and head for their old vernal pool. Their egg masses will be taken to the new pool to hatch. New Era Progress, September 4, 2007