Keller Farm Mitigation Bank
The Keller Farm Mitigation Bank (KFMB) is a 75-acre wetland, stream and riparian habitat restoration project, at the confluence of Bear, Evans and Perrigo Creeks in Redmond, Washington. The KFMB received State and Federal Certification at the end of 2019 and currently has mitigation credits available for use and transfer.
The KFMB offers mitigation credits to projects with unavoidable aquatic resource impacts within portions of the WRIA-8 Service Area including the Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington Watersheds. The project is restoring wetlands, streams and critical fish habitat for ESA listed Chinook Salmon and other anadromous and resident fish species.
Project Specific Restoration Goals Are To:
• Re-establish wetland hydrology and varying wetland hydroperiods across the site by disabling drainage ditches and creating new stream channel habitat, and creating an interconnected mosaic of wetland, upland, and riparian habitat types consistent with historical conditions on the site.
• Reconnect Bear Creek to its floodplain and improve floodplain functions on the Bank site including attenuation of flood flows, reductions in peak flood flows, food web and organic material support and transport, and refuge habitat for fish and wildlife during flood events.
• Create interconnected aquatic and terrestrial habitat types that support wetland-dependent organisms and increase habitat structure and diversity across the site.
• Re-establish native wetland vegetation communities and wetland habitat communities across the site and remove and control noxious and invasive plant species to increase habitat complexity in the floodplain wetlands and adjacent upland areas. Plant native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous species to re-establish a mosaic of habitat communities within the Bank property.
• Improve access for aquatic organisms to floodplain wetland and aquatic areas. Enhance and create off-channel rearing and refuge habitat for salmonids within the floodplain streams and backwater wetland areas connected to Bear Creek.
• Re-establish and rehabilitate stream channel habitat in the floodplain through grading and addition of large woody debris (LWD). Create pool habitat and increase channel habitat complexity.
See our Progress on the Restoration of the Keller Farm Mitigation Bank.
Juvenile Chinook and Coho Salmon utilizing Keller Farm Mitigation Bank Site (2016)
Given its size and location along 3 important salmon bearing streams that support a variety of anadromous and resident fish species, the KFMB is the one of the last properties of its kind in the Puget Sound Region. The KFMB has a rigorous 10-year monitoring schedule in which credits are released by the regulatory agencies only after the achievement of site-specific performance standards. The KFMB is a valuable resource to many of the urbanized areas of the Puget Sound within the project service area that lack the ability to do meaningful and sustainable mitigation on their own. For more information on the Keller Farm Mitigation Bank Project, or to get helpful resources when developing a “Bank Use Mitigation Plan for your project, please contact us.