Arundel Mills, Anne Arundel County, MD Rare Plant Survey, Wetland & Forest Stand Delineation

Environmental Systems Analysis, Inc. (ESA) performed a rare plant survey, and wetland and forest stand delineation of the 350-acre Arundel Mills tract in Anne Arundel County. The rare plant survey was in response to Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Natural Heritage Program and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Chesapeake Field Office requests to perform a systematic floristic survey for the federally listed, threatened and state listed, endangered Swamp Pink (Helonias bullata) and others, potentially occurring within the tract. The state ranking of 'rare' for Swamp Pink denotes that the plant is imperiled in Maryland because of rarity (typically 6 to 20 estimated occurrences) or because of factors making it vulnerable to becoming extirpated. The Natural Heritage Program actively tracks species of this rank, and is aware of Swamp Pink occurring within the general vicinity of Arundel Mills.

ESA obtained Plant Characterization Abstracts for Swamp Pink and other plants from the Natural Heritage Program database and the location of all known, confirmed occurrences within Anne Arundel County. ESA performed habitat preference and phenology research to compliment DNR findings. ESA then debriefed the Natural Heritage Program regarding our survey protocols and intention to comply with requests to perform a detailed survey of Arundel Mills for the federally listed Swamp Pink and others.

Our survey team visited known populations of Swamp Pink as provided by the Natural Heritage Program, documented and photographed habitat conditions, associate species, hydrological setting and preference, and phenological position (its current position in the cycle of development for the time the survey was to take place, i.e. flowering, fruiting, seeding). Using revised Arundel Mills wetland delineation and classification maps, as prepared by ESA and approved through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, j urisdictional determination process, we then cross referenced all highly probable, suitable habitat to be surveyed within the project site. Highly probable habitat included stable, 'obligate' (persistent) wetland seeps and springs (i.e. PFO1B, in which, 'B' denotes a saturated water regime).

ESA then performed a detailed field survey of all preferred wetland habitats within the Arundel Mills property, sanitary sewer rights-of-way, and for connector roads from the subject site to major highways. The survey transects provided near 100-percent coverage of each herbaceous community surveyed.

A total of nineteen seep areas were investigated within the 350-acre tract. The seeps were associated with four dendritic reaches that bisect the property. Each seep was investigated by a four-person team and was flagged and plotted upon review. Blueprints overlain onto wetland and forestry mapping cite the location of the nineteen areas of habitat suitability. Appendices list all of the species observed within the seep areas. The search concentrated on seeps that expressed a reliable base flow of discharge, or maintained a saturated and/or inundated water regime, even though the regional 1998 and 1999 growing seasons have experienced near record low precipitation levels, thereby reducing groundwater discharge. Based on our survey and findings, Swamp Pink and other rare, threatened and endangered species were not observed within the Arundel Mills tract, but were documented off-site at other disclosed locations in Anne Arundel County.