What is a Wetland Mitigation Bank?
Wetland Mitigation Banks are large-scale ecosystems that are blanketed by a conservation easement.
The land will be maintained, monitored and restored back to its natural state and managed in perpetuity.
By restoring the land back to its natural state; this will provide a no-net loss to the environment.
Restoration activities include: restoring the hydrology, removing invasive species, planting native species, prescribed fires, etc…
In exchange for being a good steward to the land, the landowner is awarded mitigation credits by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (and local agencies) to provide compensatory mitigation that is mandated by Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA).
The CWA requires any impact to wetlands from permitted uses such as development of transportation/energy to a Single Family Homeowner who needs access to build a driveway.
These landowners with unavoidable wetland impacts will need to offset their impacts by purchasing credits from mitigation banks; and most importantly the mitigation needs to stay within the same watershed/drainage basin.
This compensatory system enables mitigation banks to foster responsible development while restoring and maintaining rich ecosystems and be a good steward to the land that will be preserved in perpetuity.
Mitigation Banks are conservation projects that improve water quality, reduce carbon emissions, create wildlife habitat, and build resiliency to the impacts of a changing climate.
