04/08/2009: "Comments On Wetland Mitigation Banks?"

The Department of Ecology (Ecology) is seeking Public comment on draft wetland mitigation banking rule

A wetland restoration project along the Skagit River near Mount Vernon received has received approval from state, local and federal agencies. The project is the first one of its type in Skagit County, the fifth in the state in an Ecology pilot wetland mitigation bank program.

San Juan County is in the process of updating it's wetland regulations, but the County does not have such a program available for the county projects. Wetland mitigation banks generate credits which represent the increase in wetland functions at the bank site.

These credits -subject to regulatory approval- are then available for the bank sponsor to use or available for developers to purchase to offset wetland losses that cannot be avoided. The banking program does not change environmental review standards that protect against the loss of wetlands.

Gordon White, the Ecology program manager who oversees wetlands issues said “Wetland banks provide a readily accessible and more certain way to replace wetlands when the loss can’t be avoided.”

Wetland banks provide more flexibility to landowners and developers whose projects require wetland mitigation. Wetland banking isn’t new to Washington: some local governments and state agencies have established internal wetland banks for their own projects.

A wetland bank is a pre-existing wetland restoration project that provides an important strategy for streamlining the development review process while achieving the goal of no net loss of wetlands. Banks typically will restore large areas of wetland and other habitats, creating better-integrated systems for wildlife and water quality than smaller, scattered projects.

This bank must provide ongoing maintenance and monitoring for 12 years to ensure the wetland restoration project has succeeded. Bank owners also must permanently preserve their sites through a conservation easement and long term management agreements.

The project earned state approval under an Ecology wetland banking pilot program that began in 2004. Ecology recently proposed revised rules for the certification program. (See Ecology news release 09-061 at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2009news/2009-061.html.)

For more information about bank projects and Ecology’s wetland banking program, visit:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/wetlands/mitigation/banking/index.html