The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, awarded a $2 million contract to Red Bison Services, LLC, out of Kenner, Louisiana, May 17, to establish and maintain native vegetation for a wetland restoration project area near Horace, North Dakota, as part of the Fargo Moorhead Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project.
The project, called the Drain 27 Wetland Restoration Project, is part of mitigation to offset unavoidable wetland impacts caused by the constriction of the Southern Embankment, a component of the Fargo Moorhead diversion project. It includes restoring 320-acres of wetland.
Construction of a weir, road removal, and grading of the area were completed in the fall of 2022. The project was designed as a mix of wetlands and native prairie buffer. The initial planting will occur in the spring of 2023.
The Corps is working in partnership with the cities of Fargo and Moorhead and the Metro Flood Diversion Authority on the diversion project. This project will provide flood risk reduction for more than 235,000 people and 70 square miles of infrastructure in the communities of Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Horace and Harwood.
