After the success of creating the Halifax Farm Environmental Bank, Roslyn Farm Corporation once again contracted with Earth Source Solutions in 2008 for the implementation of a large-scale management plan of approximately 906+ acres in Surry County Virginia. Of that that 906 acres, 158.6 acres would be developed into the White Marsh Environmental Bank under the ownership of White Marsh Environmental LLC. The establishment of the bank will create environmental credits for developmental impacts in both the Chowan River and James River watersheds. The plan will provides for a variety of land uses including the restoration of functional wetland systems, wildlife management, and forestry. The initial 158.60 acre Bank development phase will generate up to 110 wetland credits for use by authorized permits in the Chowan River basin. These credits will be derived from the creation/restoration of up to 113.33+ acres of wetlands and the preservation of 45.27+ acres of existing USACE-confirmed wetlands.
The property is dominated with forested lands that have been modified by silvicultural activities over the past 50 years to include manipulation of wetland systems to create the conditions necessary for pine stand management. Much of this manipulation has included an integrated system of property wide ditching. This system of ditching has modified the historic hydrology to establish suitable land for silvicultural activities. The baseline conditions of the site along with the presence of hydric soils within the restoration areas, leads one to think that the sites is favorable for restoration of aquatic and upland habitat.These modifications will allow site to revert back to a funcitoning ecosystem representative of the coastal plain. The final result will be a mix of wetland creation, restoration and preservation with an additional complex of upland forest enhancement and preservation.
Currently the White Marsh Environmental Bank only services the Chowan River Watershed. Yet, Earth Source Solution’s site selection and design has allowed for future phases at the Bank to include the enhancement, restoration and/or preservation of streams/riparian buffers, wetlands and upland forest on the portions of the property for the generation of environmental credits draining to the James River basin.
Service Area:
The service area of the Bank Limits draining to the Chowan River basin shall include Hydrologic Unit Codes 03010201, 03010202 and 03010203 including all or portions of Isle of Wight, Surry, Sussex, Southampton, Greensville, Brunswick, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties and the cities of Petersburg and Suffolk lying within these Codes. The Service Area will exclude those portions of Lunenburg, Prince Edward and Nottoway counties lying within those Codes.