Public Works and Utilities, Surface Water Management Division is restoring and enhancing wetlands and re-channelizing a portion of the North Fork of Clover Creek through the 15.3 acre South Midland Wetland Reserve. The South Midland Wetland Reserve is just north of Highway 512 and south of 104th St. E., at the intersection of Aqueduct Drive and Highway 512.

The goals of this project are to improve flood control, enhance natural drainage in the Midland Area, and generate mitigation credit that may be used to compensate for unavoidable impacts to wetlands that result from Pierce County projects. Construction work is now underway and will be completed in 2008.

The restoration and enhancement of wetland, stream, and floodplain habitats at this site will provide some important ecologic and community benefits. They are:

• Improve water quality in the creek
• Detain stormwater
• Enhance summer creek water levels
• Provide habitat for wildlife such as birds, cutthroat trout, and native amphibians
• Provide open space

The South Midland Wetland Reserve is ½ mile from the Larchmont Wetland Reserve site, which is located between 91st St. E. and 96th St. E., east of East McKinley Avenue. Wetland reserves and other open spaces in close proximity to one another allow birds and other small migratory animals to migrate to nearby areas for foraging and breeding without undo loss or hardship. This is essential for successful breeding and survival.

Protecting and enhancing networks of even small sites throughout a stream reach also help Surface Water Management achieve our goals of efficiently addressing flood control and water quality while preserving natural drainage systems. In a naturally vegetated condition, these sites purify water and detain floods and cumulatively make a big difference in a watershed.

The 2002 Clover Creek Basin Plan identified a need for three off-channel detention ponds to address localized storm flooding from the North Fork of Clover Creek. Surface Water Management constructed two of these ponds (Pond E-1 and Pond W-1) in response to this need. Restoration work within the South Midland Wetland Reserve is done so as to maximize floodwater storage to the extent feasible. The site was designed to flood during 6-month storm events. This is expected to help alleviate and prevent flooding pressure on nearby properties.

The new system channel and floodplain do not yet have a direct connection to the stream; they are intentionally being kept off-line this year in order to allow the site to stabilize. And yet, the creek overtopped the existing berm during the December rainstorms. Water was stored and gradually seeped out to the stream: this site is already providing an important storm water attenvation function.