Lower Arkansas A ILF Stream & Wetland Mitigation Site 2 - Cane Creek
Muskogee County, Oklahoma
The Cane Creek Mitigation Site is Terra Foundation's second approved mitigation site within the Lower Arkansas A Service Area. This 129-acre mitigation site along Cane Creek compensates for authorized impacts to wetlands and streams throughout the Polecat-Snake Watershed in northeastern Oklahoma.
This mitigation site protects more than a mile of both sides of Cane Creek and offers a unique opportunity to improve water quality and wildlife habitat within a site that was heavily impacted by agriculture. The location was altered by removing much of the riparian forests and converting most of the property to pasture for livestock grazing. An agricultural levee was built along portions of Cane Creek and the stream and its tributaries were incised, which limited flooding of the site.
The mitigation activities completed on the site have addressed the needs of the property and the watershed through the restoration and enhancement of over 91 acres of riparian corridor and wetland buffer along Cane Creek and the restoration of about 24 acres of herbaceous and forested wetlands. In addition, floodplain connectivity and bank erosion was addressed on Cane Creek and its tributaries through bank grading, levee removal, floodplain benching with rootwad and coir log toes, installation of constructed rock riffles.