Planning and operational guidelines for mitigation banking for wetland impacts

Abstract

Mitigation of wetland losses due to development activities is an important public policy issue in the United States. Such mitigation could include avoidance, minimization, rectification, reduction, or compensation. If the first four measures are not feasible, then compensation is required. Wetland mitigation banking is one type of compensation; it refers to a process where a developer purchases a land area and restores, enhances, or creates plant or animal wetland habitat prior to any development activities. These improvements are quantified and credit is placed in a bank; at a later date, when unavoidable impacts due to the development occur, the credit can be withdrawn. Due to the relative infancy of mitigation banking, a questionnaire survey of 19 existing and 20 proposed banks in the United States has been conducted to determine the state-of-practice relative to eight identified planning and/or operational issues. The issues included bank goals, site selection, bank operator, policies for credit (habitat units) establishment and usage, preferred wetland development options, criteria for bank usage, long-term management plans, and construction and maintenance requirements. The survey results were then used to formulate 10 guidelines for planning and operating banks; they are: (1) the goal of resource agencies and developers should be to provide an efficient and effective means of providing mitigation while at the same time decreasing the time involved in the permitting process; (2) site selection and construction should take place prior to development project impacts; (3) the bank operator should be the developer and/or a combination of resource/regulatory agencies whose responsibilities are to carry out administrative and technical duties and develop long-term management plans; (4) establishment of bank credits/debits should be based on recognized habitat methods; (5) the preferred order of wetland development option usage are restoration, enhancement, construction, and preservation; (6) development projects eligible for bank use must have proven to the applicable regulatory agencies that the sequential mitigation hierarchy is not possible and the project has no alternatives; (7) earmarked accounts, trust funds, or long-term interest bearing accounts should be used to guarantee funds for long-term management; (8) during bank construction, best management practices for erosion and fugitive dust control should be implemented to protect adjacent ecosystems; (9) postmonitoring should be conducted annually for at least 10 years to determine the success or failure of a bank site and to provide information for future maintenance efforts; and (10) bank account statements should be sent semiannually to bank users and after each transaction to signess of any Memorandum of Understanding/Agreement for their response and approval.