What wetland bankers think about mitigation banking

Abstract

I n this issue we report on the results of the first national study of US wetland bankers. Most previous studies have focused on ecological, economic, and policy analyses based on data collected by or from the regulatory agencies charged with permitting and overseeing wetland banks. We used in-depth, semistructured interviews of 140 wetland mitigation bank managers (bankers) to shed light on how the nation's mitigation banks having been working from the perspective of those individuals who own and operate them. The use of in-depth interviews enabled us to collect a rich set of data on the experiences, perceptions, and understanding of a wide array of the nation's wetland bank managers. The results reveal that wetland bank managers are knowledgeable regarding their banks and the wetland mitigation banking process. Bankers, in general, seem concerned with making positive environmental contributions with their wetland mitigation banks and seem concerned with current industry practices. The nation's wetland banks are composed mainly of private entrepreneurial banks. While the results show that most wetland bankers that manage private banks are male and have some educational experience related to their banking industry, there are others types of bankers as well. On average, managers reported having worked in …