Final Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment for Terrestrial and Aquatic Habitat Restoration in the Viburnum Trend (2024).

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), acting through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture, acting through the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and the State of Missouri, represented by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR), collectively the Viburnum Trend Trustee Council, or Trustees, have prepared this Final Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment (RP/EA) to address natural resources injured and ecological services lost due to releases of hazardous substances, including heavy metals from mines, mills, smelters, and tailings impoundments within the Viburnum Trend Mining District (VT). This document selects a restoration Alternative that will restore natural resources and the services those resources provide, injured from the release of hazardous substances from the VT.

The goals of the Selected alternative within this Final RP/EA include restoration and enhancement of terrestrial and aquatic resources including habitat supportive of migratory songbirds through undesirable invasive vegetative removal, selective tree thinning or forest management, use of prescribed fire, and restoration of lead contaminated soils. Aquatic restoration activities focus on the improvement of water quality and habitat supportive of crayfish, fish, and other aquatic biota through sedimentation reduction by stabilizing eroding streambanks, reforesting riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.

Learn more about riparian buffers, and excluding livestock from streams. The selected restoration activities will be implementation on public lands and through voluntary enrollment on interested private landowner property. The selected Alternative identifies priority terrestrial and aquatic restoration focus areas designated as Tier 1 and Tier 2 areas in and around the VT.