New Report Looks at Mitigating the Impacts to Fish and Wildlife Habitats

On Monday, the environmental town hall and clearinghouse the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) reported that it estimates that private and public expenditures from core federal programs compensation to state, local, or other federal programs that mitigate human activities' harm to fish and wildlife habitats total up to $3.8 billion annually.

The ELI report estimates, for the first time, an annualized dollar amount of these damages.

"Compensatory mitigation" is the creation, enhancement, restoration, or preservation of natural resources to compensate for impacts pursuant to regulatory programs that issue licenses or permits for human activities that affect fish and wildlife habitat or natural resources, or which assess after-the-fact damages from injury to, destruction of, or loss of habitat or natural resources. Such compensation is intended to help conserve fish and wildlife species and biodiversity nationwide and over the long term.

One method of giving fair compensation to landowners who own property that contains resources or wildlife that a government agency deems endangered or vitally important to conserve is known as mitigation banking.

The United States' Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service, the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service 12 years ago issued official guidelines for the creation of Mitigation Banks. These environmentally-protective Banks have been growing in popularity across the globe since that time.

According to the EPA, a mitigation bank is a wetland, wildlife, or other aquatic or natural resource area that has been restored, established, enhanced, or preserved for the purpose of providing compensation for unavoidable impacts via legal activity to wildlife or natural resources. A mitigation bank may be created when a government agency, a private corporation, a not-for-profit organization, or other entity undertakes these activities under a formal agreement with a regulatory agency.

Through the "environmental credits" given by mitigation banks to landowners, a non-punitive method of providing incentive to conservation is created, and the power of private land ownership, seen by the great majority of concerned landowners as better than that of top-down government intervention or regulation, is harnessed for the good of the environment as well as the personal gain and protection of personal liberty of the landowner.

A report published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in February of 2005 stated, "A number of trends indicate that since 1991 poorly designed environmental procedures and regulatory processes have become more significant barriers to the development of affordable housing...Major trends include...the misuse of environmental regulations by those opposed to affordable housing."

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