RANCHING Business
Mitigation Banking: It Pays to Conserve By Katrina Huffstutler
In the fi rst 2 parts of this year-long series, we have discussed the many benefi ts of a conservation easement — but we’ve also learned they are not free. For some landowners, mitigation banking could be the key to increased revenue on these properties.
A
LL OVER TEXAS, OKLAHOMA AND the southwest, developers are going into once un-
touched spaces in the name of prog- ress. And while this usually disap- points ranchers, there are instances where it pays. Blair Fitzsimons, chief executive
offi cer for Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT), says that mitigation banking, which is defi ned as “the restoration, creation, enhancement, or preservation of a wetland, stream or other habitat area undertaken ex- pressly for the purpose of compensat- ing for unavoidable resource losses in advance of development actions, when such compensation cannot be achieved at the development site or would not be as environmentally benefi cial,” has become an increasing part of what the organization does. “Mitigation banking was largely
created to give land developers a way to offset the impacts of land development,” Fitzsimons says. “When a developer is impacting certain natural resources, such as streams, rivers, wetlands, or habitat for an endangered species, they must obtain a permit from a federal agency, either the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The developer may obtain the permit by performing a number of actions to compensate for the adverse impact.” One compensatory act is to purchase credits from
a mitigation bank. The need for these credits in turn creates a market for private lands conservation.
tscra.org
Mitigation banking is defi ned as “the restoration, creation, enhancement, or pres- ervation of a wetland, stream or other habitat area undertaken expressly for the purpose of compensating for unavoidable resource losses in advance of develop- ment actions, when such compensation cannot be achieved at the development site or would not be as environmentally benefi cial.”
She offers this example: A new pipeline is slated to
run through 2 acres of a wetland. The pipeline com- pany must obtain a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to comply with the Clean Water Act, and must compensate for the impact. “It may obtain a permit by protecting and restor-
ing an isolated wetland area near the project, or it can purchase 2-acre credits, if available, from a mitigation bank servicing the geographic area of the project. The purchase of credits streamlines the permit process, and is benefi cial for the resource, because a large
June 2016 The Cattleman 55
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