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Vol. 2, No. 3: March 19, 2007
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The Ecosystem Marketplace's Mitigation Mail
Conservation and Wetland News You Can Bank On
Banking is growing by leaps and bounds, so let’s not trip!
Since last month's newsletter, no less than 8 new conservation banks have been announced in California. That is a big jump by any standard, even in the state considered to be the cradle of conservation banking. Wildlands Inc. generated the lion's share of the new banks, but one of them marks Westervelt's entry into the California market.
As we see in this month's stories, conservation banking has been growing dramatically amid the continued evaluation of mitigation banking's shortcomings. Now is a critical time for those interested in conservation banking to take stock of the ecological and regulatory lessons being taught in the wetland mitigation arena. What better place to do this than at next month's National Mitigation and Conservation Banking Conference in St. Louis? We look forward to seeing many of you there.
—The Ecosystem Marketplace Team
If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at mitmail@ecosystemmarketplace.com.
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Group uses credit system to protect vernal pools (3/11/07)
"Wildlands Inc. is in the banking business. They buy swaths of land across California, restore and preserve pools and habitat, and then sell credits to anyone contemplating a project that could destroy wetlands somewhere else. Business has boomed for Wildlands since it started its first California bank in 1995. It now has more than 20,000 acres in two dozen banks."
– Read the story
– Wildlands Inc. News
State buys wetland credits to build highway (3/9/07)
"[A local] conservation banking company wouldn't disclose price, but demand for credits in Placer County, California is high. The preservation of vernal pools in a new western Placer County conservation bank will help the planned construction of Highway 65 bypass around the city of Lincoln."
– Read the story
With pollution problems aplenty, Florida tries to sort out ways to save wetlands for real (3/6/07)
"When state officials drew up a list of 1,200 Florida waterways impaired by pollution, 80 percent suffered from fertilizer-heavy runoff. They were all in areas where Florida has lost the most wetlands in the past 15 years." This St. Petersburg Times story reports little cause for hope.
– Read the article
National Wetlands Newsletter Warns Against Water Quality Trading Schemes Based on Wetland Mitigation Banking Models (3/5/07)
"Designing a cap-and-trade market for water quality credits patterned on the existing market for wetlands mitigation credits would prove very challenging, reports the March-April 2007 issue of the National Wetlands Newsletter"
– Read the article
Westervelt Ecological Services Makes Mitigation Sale (3/1/07)
"In a press release, Westervelt Ecological Services announced today that its "Mariner Vernal Pool Conservation Bank" is now open and approved to sell vernal pool preservation credits for projects in western Placer County, California. The press release also states that the bank has already sold mitigation credits to the California Dept. of Transportation (Cal Trans) for its Highway 65 Bypass project."
– Read the story
Raymond eyes 'land bank' for wetland projects (2/23/07)
Raymond, New Hampshire is toying with the idea of setting up a mitigation land bank. The proposal would allow low-value areas, such as pools of water created by defunct excavation projects, to be developed in exchange for the protection of high-value, natural lands at a ration of 1-to-10. With no precedent in the State, the first bank may require an act of legislation.
– Read the story
Wildlands Opens New Conservation Bank in Merced (2/21/07)
"Wildlands, Inc. announces the approval of a new conservation bank in Merced County. The 1067-acre Great Valley Conservation Bank will address mitigation of habitat impacts to threatened and endangered vernal pool species, the federally threatened California Tiger Salamander and is expected to add coverage of the federally endangered San Joaquin Kit Fox."
– Read the story
'Crucial' wetland to stay pristine: State proposing stricter rules for man-made wetlands (2/19/07)
"Ohio EPA proposed a set of wetland rules more than a year ago that would require developers to build wetlands with soils and plants similar to the ones they filled.
A lobbyist with the Ohio Home Builders Association, called the proposed standards too expensive and almost impossible to achieve. Randy Bournique, manager of the Ohio EPA's wetlands section, said the agency hopes to come up with a compromise by September."
– Read the story
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