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Impact Mitigation
"Mitigation is action taken to avoid, reduce, or compensate for the effects
of environmental damage. Among the broad spectrum of possible actions are those
that restore, enhance, create, or replace damaged ecosystems" (National
Research Council 1992).
Mitigation banks are preserves of protected, restored or constructed wetlands
or other habitats set aside to meet governmental requirements for compensatory
mitigation of impacts to wetlands and other habitats resulting from development.
The Corps has a "no net loss" policy for wetlands. The Corps requires
either onsite wetland creation, or more commonly, offsite creation through the
purchase of wetland acreage at an agency approved mitigation bank to replace
acreage of filled wetlands. Wetlands are also habitats to endangered plant species
on the Santa Rosa Plain. To account for the loss of potential endangered plant
habitat, the Service has issued a programmatic biological opinion on the Santa
Rosa Plain requiring project proponents to preserve existing endangered plant
populations through the purchase of preservation acreage at a mitigation bank.
These two components create a 2:1 replacement ratio for the fill of wetlands,
wetland creation and plant preservation, which are separately purchased acreages.
In addition, mitigation must be provided for impacts to CTS habitat if the project
occurs in the Santa Rosa Plain in an area where CTS may exist. The replacement
ratios vary and are based on the project site's proximity to known CTS breeding
locations. |
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