What is a mitigation bank and why does Fort Drum have one?
A mitigation bank is an assemblage of wetlands, built before construction projects, to offset (as mitigation) the impacts of these future projects. Acres of these banked wetlands are placed as “credits” into an “account” and “withdrawn” as “debits” as impacts mount from subsequent projects. Fort Drum developed a mitigation bank to shorten the permitting process for projects. Whereas the usual “individual permit” can take months or years to obtain, withdrawals from a mitigation bank are expected to take weeks, at most months.
