What Is Mitigation Banking?
Mitigation banking is a system for dealing with the impacts to wetlands from various human activities, including building and road construction. Conservation banking is a very similar approach to dealing with the impacts to the habitat of threatened or endangered species. When buildings and roads are permitted by government agencies, they are required to avoid and minimize any impacts to these types of sensitive environmental features. However, when there are unavoidable impacts, the person or company seeking the permit must mitigate the remaining impacts. While some permit seekers mitigate impacts by permanently protecting and restoring environmental features similar to the ones impacted onsite, others make use of mitigation banks. Mitigation banks are sites chosen specifically for their ability to protect and restore environmental features such as wetlands and endangered species habitat. These banks are characterized by: Providing measurable protection and restoration in advance of a
