Field Trips

www.machinelakebank.com

FIELD TRIP #3
Machine Lake Bank
Tuesday, May 5, 2009— 1 to 5 p.m.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 — 8 to 11:30 a.m.
hosted by RP Wetlands

The Machine Lake (also known as the Knudson Marsh) originated in the early 1900s with the Knudson Family and was part of the large land holding of that group.  The Machine Lake name stuck from an old horse-drawn hay cutting machine that was stuck in the lake when the water rose and was never recovered.  The marsh has been studied since the 1940s on and off and was considered one of the most productive sites for the Redhead (Aythya Americana) duck in the United States at one time. On any given day you will find huge flocks of migrating birds on the site.  It truly is a waterfowl and bird lover’s paradise.

The Machine Lake Mitigation Bank is located in Brigham City, Utah and is part of a large wetland complex that includes several properties and eventually leads into the Great Salt Lake Complex.  It is located in the Bear River Watershed.  Its neighbor on two sides of the property is the famous National Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (a 74,000 acre complex).  The complex is on an international flyway as well.  The Machine Lake Bank, phase 1, consists of a little over 1,000 acres and is situated in part of a 2,500-plus-acre site that eventually will constitute the entire Mitigation Bank.  Phase 1 was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in late 2007 and has 379 credits available as success criteria are met. The work has begun on the site and will continue for the next several years.

The complex along with the Bird Refuge was severely flooded by the Great Salt Lake in the mid 1980s by what might be considered a 100-year flood event.  The flood, in addition to altering the hydrologic regime, damaging existing control structures, eradicating existing non-saline vegetation (this was and is a freshwater system), gave foothold to several invasive species of weeds, particularly the Phragmite, which has almost completely choked out any good plants trying to regain foothold and is so thick in parts of the complex that it diverts the water.  Some stands are 15-20 feet tall and cover hundreds of acres.  These issues in conjunction with lack of proper management (and available funds) by prior managers left this once premium complex in need of some major restoration which will involve hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring it back to its historical function with hopefully a few modern improvements.

To insure that any future possible disaster is mitigated, the Sponsors (RP Wetlands) have developed a “Catastrophic Event Fund”, the first in the banking world, where a portion of every credit sold will go into this fund and be held perpetually to cover any sort of disaster that may occur; this is in addition to the perpetual maintenance funds the Army Corps requests be set up. The overall project will be a combination of Restoration, Rehabilitation, and Enhancement of weaker functioning areas and preservation of the whole.

Galena Mitigation Bank
Kennecott Mitigation Bank & Inland Sea Shorebird Reserve
The Machine Lake Bank

EARLY Registration: $45 (before January 25, 2009)
PRE-CONFERENCE Registration: $55 (before March 24, 2009)
LATE Registration: $80 (after March 24, 2009; if space available)
REGISTER NOW!