Overview:
The Pecatonica Mitigation Bank is 34.7 acres located in the floodplain of the Pecatonica River in Stephenson County within the North Service Area in the Lower Rock Watershed in Stephenson County, Illinois. Pecatonica Mitigation Bank was approved by the Rock Island District, Corps of Engineers in September of 2024 for a potential 46,293.4 stream credits.
The Pecatonica Stream Mitigation Bank will improve the straightened, laterally eroding stream to support aquatic habitat diversity, habitat connectivity, and the existence of threatened or endangered species related to prior habitat loss. This will be accomplished through re-meandering the channel and the reconnection of the stream to its floodplain through the removal of spoil piles/levees that have accumulated through years of tilling and leveling of the adjacent fields. Pecatonica Stream MB will also improve the diversity of native vegetation and establishment of more significant, perennial root systems throughout the riparian buffer, which has been significantly degraded through decades of row-crop agricultural practices.
Pecatonica MB is approved to offset stream impacts within the North Service Area in the Lower Rock Watershed which includes Apple-Plum (HUC 07060005), Copperas-Duck (HUC 07080101), Pecatonica (HUC 07090003), Sugar (HUC (07090004), Middle Rock (HUC 07090002), Kishwaukee (HUC 07090006), Lower Rock (HUC 07090005), and Green (HUC 07090007).
