Sustainable Environments, LLC A Mitigation Banking Company Frequently Asked Questions: How Can You Can Profit From Wetland Banking? You create the wetlands that a land developer (bank customer) would have to create to compensate for their loss of wetlands resulting from their project. The proceeds from your credit sales will compensate for the costs of banked wetland construction. You realize a profit when the payments for banked wetland credits exceed the costs of creating the banked wetlands. After credit sales, the banked wetland becomes a nature preserve that can provide for excellent hunting and fishing or serve as a natural amenity that enhances the value of adjacent developed upland. Why would an owner want to sell or partner with a group to have their property turned into a mitigation bank? Basically because it enables the owner to sell the property at fair market value, while ensuring that the only thing that will happen on the property once it is sold is that it will be preserved or restored to create a highly functioning wetland or habitat for an endangered species. This is a very attractive situation for many property owners who would like to sell off part of a large land holding, while having the property remain in a scenic natural state. What limitations are put on a property after it officially becomes a mitigation bank? Basically any activity that would degrade the ecological functions that the mitigation bank has been set up to create will not be allowed on the bank site, or buffer area around the bank. However, as an example, waterfowl hunting is not necessarily restricted on a wetland mitigation bank site. The property will have a conservation easement placed on it, so that in perpetuity there will be restrictions on what can take place on the property (i.e. no development). The owner of the bank site can still retain the ownership rights to the property and enforce their rights to restrict access to the site and maintain it as normal private property (with the exception of allowing the site to be inspected periodically to ensure that the ecological functions that the site has been obligated to create, restore or preserve are in fact being fulfilled). FAQ