Reclamation and Watershed Management

Watershed management offers an opportunity to apply an integrated approach to wetlands management that incorporates the physical natural resources of the watershed. These include river and stream corridors, floodplains, surface and ground water, and wetlands. These areas not only contain valuable ecological resources, but important aggregate (sand and gravel) resources as well. Watershed management strategies that incorporate the recovery of non-renewable sand and gravel resources and wetland creation through the reclamation of mined land and mitigation banking can weave together the seemingly competing goals of wetlands protection and aggregate mining.