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Waupaca County board authorizes bonding for Waupaca River Wetland Mitigation Bank
Summary
The Waupaca County Board adopted a resolution authorizing bonding and assurances for a 243.57-acre Waupaca River Wetland Mitigation Bank that will generate up to 128.67 mitigation credits; construction and maintenance assurances totaling $1,956,600 were specified and the chair was authorized to sign the agreement.
The Waupaca County Board of Supervisors adopted Resolution No. 1 (2024-2025) on April 17 to authorize agreements and bonding for the Waupaca River Wetland Mitigation Bank (WRWMB), a county-owned mitigation bank in the Town of Royalton intended to supply compensatory wetland credits within the Fox Basin and Lake Michigan watershed.
The resolution notes the bank covers 243.57 acres and is designed to generate up to 128.67 wetland mitigation acre credits. The Waupaca County Highway Department (WCHD) must provide a construction assurance acceptable to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) in the amount of $1,342,000 and maintenance assurances of $203,200 for Phase 1 and $411,400 for Phase 2. Those assurances are to be available to the WDNR to undertake construction, seeding, planting, monitoring, and maintenance as required in the bank plan.
Supervisor Jack Spierings moved to adopt the resolution and Supervisor Fred Zaug seconded. The motion carried 25-0. The resolution authorizes County Board Chair Dick Koeppen to sign the attached agreement and directs County Clerk Kristy K. Opperman to attest the document.
County materials accompanying the resolution state the WRWMB will provide credits that Waupaca County expects to use for county road construction projects and may also be sold to other local government units, producing a revenue source for the county. The resolution describes the bank as an alternative to permittee-responsible mitigation or the Wisconsin DNR in-lieu fee program, in part because it avoids temporal wetland loss.
The board did not record extended debate in the minutes; the vote was recorded as unanimous. The agreement and performance assurances proceed to signature as authorized by the board.
