Mr. Gorman has recently worked with NOAA Fisheries, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Washington Department of Ecology to design and permit the Round Lake Wetland Mitigation and Salmonid Conservation Bank on the Lower Columbia River. The proposed Round Lake Conservation Bank is a privately funded voluntary project intended to restore aquatic habitat, riparian habitat, tidal influence, and fish access through floodplain reconnection and native plantings on approximately 260 acres of agricultural land adjacent to the Lower Columbia River in Clark County Washington. The land proposed for habitat restoration is within the Columbia River Estuary but has been disconnected from the river for many decades through the construction of levees around the perimeter of the property and the installation of a tidegate.
The project site is situated north of the Port of Vancouver, south of and adjacent to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, east of the Columbia River, and west of Lake River at approximately Columbia River Mile 96. Round Lake is contained wholly within the project boundary and Post Office Lake is partially within the project boundary. Land use within the project site has been a combination of row crops and livestock grazing. Site hydrology is a mix of wetland and upland. The objective of the bank is to restore estuarine hydrology and juvenile salmonid access to agricultural land that will be replanted with native woody and herbaceous vegetation. Mr. Gorman has provided all hydrologic and hydraulic analysis and engineering design and has successfully worked closely with the US Army Corps of Engineers and Washington Department of Ecology to submit Section 106, 401, and Individual 404 permit applications for the project. He has provided engineering and technical support for the Clark County/Washington State Shoreline Permitting process, including the preparation of erosion control, drainage, and habitat mitigation plans.
The Round Lake project is on private property under the ownership of New Columbia Garden Company, Inc. and the Anderson Dairy Farm, Inc. The bank will provide mitigation for unavoidable impacts to threatened native fish and wetlands.