Introduction

The Rum Pointe Golf Course site was planned as a 3 acre (1 acre forest, 1 acre scrub-shrub, 1 acre emergent) wetland restoration within the Coastal Area – Sinepuxent Bay (02-13-01-04) watershed of Worcester County. 

Status

In 2007, MDE conducted intensive site monitoring which included installing IRIS tubes, evaluating the soil, monitoring hydrology multiple times during the spring growing season, monitoring transects, and scoring the site.  This site was a failure, since it is currently estimated that less than a third has wetland hydrology.  The installed IRIS tubes did not reduce, indicating that there was not sufficient soil reduction to satisfy the wetland hydrology requirement.  During multiple spring growing season visits between 2007 and 2009, the majority of the area was dry or only slightly moist, suggesting wetland hydrology was not present in much of the site.  The soils were hydric, but were so prior to construction.  Vegetation is dominated by upland species.  The conclusions from the 2007 observational transects also found that the majority of the site was not a wetland.  MDE will adjust the estimated wetland gains accordingly.  Using the newly developed Mitigation Site Scoring Method, MDE gave this site a failing score of 54/100.  While failing as a wetland mitigation, it does provide decent upland forest functions.