Wetland Mitigation

Land Development Projects often cause adverse impacts to aquatic and biological resources even with best avoidance and minimization practices. These unavoidable impacts require compensatory mitigation to ensure that the ecological losses are offset and do not result in a net loss of natural resources. 

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A mitigation bank is a resource area that has been restored, established, enhanced, or in some circumstances, preserved for the purpose of providing compensation for these unavoidable impacts permitted under the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, or a similar state or local regulation.

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There are two types of mitigation banks, wetland/stream banks and conservation banks. Wetland/stream banks offer credits to offset losses to aquatic resources. Conservation banks offer credits to offset losses to the habitat of endangered, threatened, candidates for listing, or other special-status species. Impacts to aquatic resources are regulated/approved by the USACE and USEPA. Impacts to listed species and their habitats are regulated/approved by the USFWS and NMFS.

Mitigation banks are created under agreement with these regulatory agencies, who review/approve the ecological assessment techniques to certify that the credits offered provide the required ecological functions to offset impacts.

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We serve our clients in the three categories below: