STREAKED HORNED LARK
Conservation credits to offset development impacts
to streaked horned lark
Wapato Valley Mitigation and Conservation Bank will provide conservation credits for development impacts to ESA-listed streaked horned lark permitted by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wapato Valley will offer the first publicly available streaked horned lark mitigation credits in the Lower Columbia Region.
Photo ©David Maloney, USFWS (2005)
Creating streaked horned lark mitigation opportunities
Streaked horned lark are dependent on early seral stage sand deposits for nesting. These deposits would have historically been created and maintained from sediment transport and deposition related to spring freshet flooding. Frequent floodplain inundation would have been more prevalent under pre-dam conditions allowing a greater area of repeated floodplain inundation creating higher elevation floodplain sand deposits. Pre-regulated low flows were lower than today, exposing more low elevation floodplain sand deposits and shoals. The creation and maintenance of streaked horned lark habitat in the Wapato Valley Bank will replace lost habitat opportunities at both high and low floodplain elevations.
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