Goldsmith Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary is located within Madison County in Huntsville, AL. The sanctuary has a unique location directly adjacent to residential areas. The sanctuary is the home to an abundance of species, and plant life. The preserve offers a few miles of scenic hiking trails and observation points. The Sanctuary is 386 acres of which is composed of 78 acres of previous agricultural farmland, 124 acres of wooded lands, and 177 acres of wetlands. The wetland areas are composed of restored wetlands, enhanced wetlands, and preserved wetlands.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines a wetland as an area where water covers the soil or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year, or at varying periods of time through the year. Restored wetlands are wetlands that have been restored to their original high-quality function from current low-quality function through a change in the area’s hydrology. Enhanced wetlands are defined as wetland activities designed for a specific purpose such as supporting certain types of plant and animal species. In many cases, to have a properly enhanced wetlands both the land and hydrology must be altered. Created wetlands is the process of developing new wetland areas where pervious wetlands were not present. The creation of new wetland areas can require advanced landscaping design with the installation of engineered materials to form the wetland areas.
Wetland Mitigation Banking is the restoration, creation, enhancement, and creation of wetlands to compensate for environmental impacts that may harm the areas. In the case of Goldsmith Schiffman, the previous land use was agricultural. The previous agricultural fields can have a negative impact on the natural processes of the wetland due to the land being altered to be best suited for agriculture. When it comes to agricultural lands producers can purchase credits to compensate for the impact of wetlands that are lost. After the creation of the mitigation bank the owner retains the property while environmental groups protect the wetlands from degrading due to site activities. However, wetland protection does not actively mitigate the replacement of lost wetlands. Former wetlands restored to their original quality provide the best success in mitigation banking.
The goal of the Goldsmith Schiffman Wetland Mitigation Bank is to restore and enhance the wetlands by creating a seasonally inundated and saturated hardwood forest area as well as preserving the 8,876 linear feet of streams located on the sanctuary property. The scope of work will be accomplished by the restoration of 53.32 acres of wetlands, by the enhancement of 14.93 acres of wetlands, and by the preservation of 93.98 acres of wetlands. Once the above-mentioned activities have been completed the Gold Smith Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary wetlands should return to their original glory of being a high functioning natural wetland area.
