Learn & Network

Ecological restoration through mitigation banking is a rapidly growing industry in Pennsylvania and across the United States. A mitigation bank is a wetland, stream, or other aquatic resource area that has been reestablished, rehabilitated, or enhanced, for the purpose of providing compensation for unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources that are protected under Federal or state law. Mitigation banks can be created by government agencies, nonprofits, or often by for-profit banking corporations. An established bank must typically be protected by a conservation easement. Currently in Pennsylvania, there are five for-profit companies approved to conduct mitigation banking with 22 approved mitigation banks generating 54 miles of stream credits and 327 acres of wetland credits of compensatory mitigation banking.

Increasingly, mitigation banking is touching the world of land trusts and conservancies, both as mitigation bankers seek easement holders and as ecological restoration is achieved through mitigation banks being established on already eased land or preserves. This webinar will bring together perspectives from a land trust, consultant, regulator, and mitigation banking company to shed light on how the mitigation banking process functions and how land trusts can make informed decisions as they potentially engage in mitigation banking.

Presenters

• Ryan Szuch | President, Grow Conservation LLC (moderator)
• Emilie Rzotkiewicz | Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Allegheny Land Trust
• Dave Goerman | Water Program Specialist, PA Department of Environmental Protection
• Jon Kasitz | Client Solutions Manager, Resource Environmental Solutions