The North Florida Salt Marsh Mitigation Bank (NFSMMB) is only the second permitted salt marsh bank in Florida and first of its kind for northeast Florida. Icarus obtained the final Corps authorized MBI in October 2013. Upon execution of the Conservation easements and financial assurances, 7+ credits were released and were sold within one year. Construction began in 2016 and is expected to be completed by Q1 of 2017. The Bank was a 100 acre spoil site used for 60 years by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for deposition of dredge spoil from the St. Johns River north of Mayport. The bank is a very robust construction project including the removal of 58+ acres of 4-6 feet of spoil, installation of numerous culverts, establishment of salt creeks, and planting of salt marsh vegetation.
In addition to obtaining the release of the Corps spoil easements, tree mitigation and city ROW easements also had to be negotiated which entailed extensive coordination locally, along with the normal banking process involving the St. Johns Water Management District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. To date, NFSMMB is the largest spoil removal-salt marsh restoration project undertaken on the east coast of Florida. Icarus continues work on the project as the environmental construction QMS and monitoring QMS.