| What
is a Mitigation Bank? A
mitigation bank is privately or
publicly owned land managed for
its natural resource values. In
exchange for permanently
protecting the land, the bank
operator is allowed to sell
habitat credits to developers who
need to satisfy legal
requirements for compensating
environmental impacts of
development projects. A
mitigation bank is a free-market
enterprise that:
-
offers
landowners economic
incentives to protect
natural resources;
-
saves
developers time and money
by providing them with
the certainty of
pre-approved compensation
lands; and
-
provides
for long-term protection
and management of
habitat.
Mitigation
banks typically involve the
consolidation of many small
wetland mitigation projects into
a larger, potentially more
ecologically valuable site.
Further, mitigation banks require
the up-front compensation prior
to affecting a wetland at another
site. This ensures the success of
the mitigation before unavoidable
damage occurs at another site.
With proper implementation and
guidelines, mitigation banking
has the potential to increase
ecological benefits, save money
for project applicants, and
improve efficiencies in
application and permitting
processes.
 back to
top
What
is Mitigation Banking?
Basically,
mitigation banking creates an
economic incentive for restoring,
creating, enhancing and/or
preserving wetlands. The concept
of mitigation banking has been
around since the ’70s.
Mitigation banking is the
restoration, creation,
enhancement, or in exceptional
circumstances, preservation of
wetlands for the express purpose
of providing compensating for
unavoidable wetland losses in
advance of development actions,
when such compensation cannot be
achieved at the development site
or would not be as
environmentally beneficial.
back to
top
What
are Mitigation Banking Credits
and Debits, and How Are They
Determined?
A
mitigation bank is not like a
checking account. Credits placed
in deposit by a sponsor can only
be spent by a user if the
regulator approves the action.
The "currency" of the
bank must be measurable to the
extent that wetland functions and
values credited and debited are
comparable. To date Owing to
limitations in wetland functional
assessment methodology, in many
cases, credits and debits have
been measured simply in terms of
acres of various wetland classes
produced or lost.
Credits
and debits essentially represent
"currency" or units of
trade. Credits represent the
accrual or attainment of wetland
functions at the bank site
resulting from the restoration
being done, while debits
represent the loss of functions
at the project site.
The
Corps of Engineers, in
conjunction with the Mitigation
Bank Review Team, determine the
number of credits available at a
bank site based on the potential
for restoring or enhancing the
wetland functions as compared
with existing conditions. The
potential for restoring wetland
functions is determined by
applying an appropriate
functional assessment technique,
such as the Hydrogeomorphic
(HGM) Approach for Assessing
Wetland Functions.
back to
top
What
are the Benefits of Mitigation
Banking?
Mitigation
banking has a number of benefits
over traditional compensatory
mitigation. Mitigation banks can
consolidate many small, scattered
compensatory mitigation sites
into one larger site that may be
more advantageous for maintaining
the integrity of the aquatic
ecosystem. Mitigation banks bring
together financial resources,
planning and scientific expertise
not practicable to many small
compensatory mitigation projects,
thus increasing the probability
of success. Typically, mitigation
banks are functioning at some
level prior to project impacts,
thereby reducing temporal losses
of aquatic functions.
Consolidation of compensatory of
mitigation within a bank
increases the efficiency of
limited agency resources needed
to review and monitor mitigation
projects for compliance.
Summary:
-
Reduce
uncertainty over whether
the compensatory
mitigation will be
successful in offsetting
project impacts;
-
Assemble
and apply extensive
financial resources,
planning, and scientific
expertise not always
available to many
permittee-responsible
compensatory mitigation
proposals;
-
Reduce
permit processing times
and provide more
cost-effective
compensatory mitigation
opportunities; and
-
Enable the
efficient use of limited
agency resources in the
review and compliance
monitoring of
compensatory mitigation
projects because of
consolidation.
back to
top
Wetlands
are regulated under a number of
statutory authorities. Regulatory
agencies from the federal, state
and local governments all have an
interest in overseeing wetland
protection.
Under
current regulatory programs,
parties seeking permits for
activities that affect wetlands
must first avoid and then
minimize those effects. Any
remaining damage must be
compensated. Historically, the
regulatory preference for
compensation has been on-site
creation, restoration or
enhancement of a wetland. These
mitigation efforts have resulted
in several smaller, "postage
stamp" wetlands that have
had limited success in reaching
full-function potential.
The
sequencing of avoidance,
minimization and compensation
still applies prior to using
credits from any mitigation bank.
However, in contrast to
traditional mitigation
activities, mitigation banking
requires that compensation -
restoration, creation,
enhancement, and/or preservation
- occurs before a site is
affected by a project. Bank
projects are put in place prior
to allowing unavoidable impacts
by a project. Credits are
generated by this up-front
activity. Those credits can then
be used by the bank sponsor or
sold to another party to offset
impacts to wetlands that occur in
other locations. Again, only
impacts that cannot be avoided or
minimized are available for
compensation through credits from
a mitigation bank.
Source:
Department of Ecology
back to
top
Ideally,
mitigation banking can best be
implemented in the context of
watershed planning. Mitigation
banks can be designed and located
to address specific watershed
needs. This could mean enhancing
or restoring wetland functions
that are in short supply or are
of critical importance in a given
watershed or drainage basin. Good
ecological assessment of
watersheds, combined with
transportation, infrastructure,
and development planning, will
allow mitigation banks to be
designed and located in areas
where they serve the greatest
ecological good.
back to
top
Tours
Yes. MCMB will be
happy to schedule a tour or
appointment for you, or your
group, to visit us. Click here to
contact us.
back to
top
|
