Скачать или смотреть Offset a Project’s Impacts With Mitigation Banking

Habitat loss is one of the main reasons for species decline. Paul Sherman, mitigation practice lead for Burns & McDonnell, shares how project impacts to wildlife habitats, wetlands, streams and sensitive areas can be offset through the conservation of nearby ecosystems. https://hubs.li/Q01pyZGf0 #MitigationBanking #ConservationBanking
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Paul:
Projects of all types and sizes can impact wildlife species, from birds to bats, to bees. Successfully permitting your project may require environmental mitigation to conserve, protect, and restore wildlife habitats. Environmental mitigation is important because it's a balance between development and conservation. Habitat loss causes species decline, so impacts to wetlands, streams, and sensitive areas need to be offset through conservation of nearby ecosystems. Resource loss or any impact to an ecosystem may be unavoidable. Losses can be mitigated through the preservation of a comparable nearby ecosystem.

Paul:
Environmental mitigation is made up of several unique steps. First, an analysis will determine the types of ecological impacts a project will likely generate. Next, federal and state regulatory agencies will work with the developer and a mitigation sponsor to decide the appropriate compensation to offset those impacts. The developer can then purchase bank credits or a permitted responsible solution from an approved mitigation sponsor to offset those impacts. Those sites could be wetlands or streams or land, permanently set aside to protect the habitats of threatened or endangered species or waters of the United States.

Paul:
The mitigation sponsor is responsible for the site development and for any future upkeep. The environmental services group at Burns & McDonnell has collaborated on projects requiring environmental offsets. Notably, the Chariton Hills Bat Conservation Bank in Northern Missouri, a first of its kind bank, it benefits three species of endangered bats. In Central Minnesota, the North Fork Crow River Wetlands Mitigation Bank provides offsets for permitted state and federal wetland impacts. And in Southern California, the Moosa Creek Riparian Restoration Project offsets the habitat loss of two federally endangered bird species.

Paul:
Burns & McDonnell also developed the Eagle Protection and Offset Program, or EPOP, which offers project owners offset credits by retrofitting power poles in habitats that pose an electrocution risk to eagles. The benefits can be felt, seen, and heard from coast to coast. We are passionate about safeguarding the environment, so with every wetland, stream, or creek that we establish, restore, or enhance, we understand that what we do, matters. Long-term conservation requires long-term commitment and we're just getting started.