ARTICLES

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North Carolina’s Ecosystem-Impact Mitigation PDF

by William Gilmore

The demands of compensatory wetland mitigation for transportation impacts were overwhelming North Carolina’s mitigation-delivery system, delaying projects across the state. Rather than trying to improve the system at the margins, officials decided to overhaul it entirely and embrace a proactive, watershed-based approach to wetland mitigation.

William D. Gilmore, director of the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program, participated in the organizational development of EEP, along with numerous stakeholders. He is a registered professional engineer with specialization in the National Environmental Policy Act, permitting, and heavy civil-engineering public works.

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Wetland Mitigation Banking: Clarifying Intent PDF

by Barbara Bedford

The Society of Wetland Scientists recently published a position paper entitled Wetland Mitigation Banking. The National Wildlife Federation criticized the document, arguing that it perpetuates favorable myths about the wetland mitigation banking industry. Here, SWS authors respond. Look for NWF commentary in the following issue.

Barbara L. Bedford, on behalf of the Wetland Concerns Committee and the Executive Board of the Society of Wetland Scientists. Authors on the Wetland Concerns Committee include Sandy Doyle-Ahern and Mark Felton. Dr. Bedford is president of the Society of Wetland Scientists. Sandy Doyle-Ahern is chair of the Wetland Concerns Committee. Mark Felton is a past president of SWS and a professional wetland scientist with URS Corporation in St. Louis.

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Wetlands and the Public Highway Program PDF

by Dennis Durbin

What are the drivers behind the evolution of U.S. transportation policy toward greater environmental protectiveness? What are the consequences of that evolution? What developments in the public and private sectors will shape the country’s approaches to transportation-impact mitigation in the future? A Federal Highway Administration official provides insight.

Dennis Durbin is an ecologist for the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, D.C., where he works in the Water and Ecosystem Team. He previously worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetland regulatory program in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala.

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Banking and Transportation Projects: Merging Ecological Protection and Economic Growth PDF

by Craig Denisoff

Wetland compensatory mitigation banking offers clients many economic and ecological benefits, says the president of the National Mitigation Banking Association. Transportation agencies are particularly well served by the banking option, and should investigate advanced or full-service public-private mitigation banking partnerships.

Craig Denisoff is president of the National Mitigation Banking Association and senior vice-president of Wildlands Inc. He formerly served as assistant secretary for the California Resources Agency and has worked for numerous state and federal agencies on wetlands, coastal, watershed, and fisheries issues.

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What We Always Knews: Wetlands Win Hands Down at Pollution Mitigation PDF

by Brant Keller

Municipalities seeking stormwater-treatment options will find a commercial market full of products promising to reduce pollutant loads. But can wetlands filter highway runoff just as well, and with greater cost savings, as commercially sold proprietary BMPs? Research from a Georgia town suggests an affirmative.

Brant Keller holds degrees from the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Kennedy Western University, where he earned a Ph.D. He is on the editorial board of the Stormwater Journal and publishes regularly in several national publications in the field of stormwater management. He can be reached at bkeller@cityofgriffin.com.

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Highway Construction and Mitigation: On the Road to Increasing Wetland Function? PDF

by Curtis Richardson

Despite the documentation of wetland gains accrued by the federal-aid highway program as compensation for transportation impacts, we have minimal data on the composition of those gains or how well compensatory wetlands function in the landscape. The author proposes a quantitative wetland functional assessment methodology to address this data gap.

Curtis Richardson is director of the Duke University Wetland Center and a professor of resource ecology at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. Dr. Richardson directs wetland science and management research, including research on phosphorus biogeochemistry in wetland ecosystems around the world. He is a fellow of the Society of Wetland Scientists, the Soil Science Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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Wetland Banks Threatened PDF

by Bonnie Harper-Lore

State transportation agencies are beginning to recognize the value of mitigation banking, successfully operating public wetland banks and forging public-private partnerships to establish others. But mitigation banking is threatened both by invasive species and the current limits on our ability to assess wetland function.

Bonnie Harper-Lore is a restoration ecologist with the Federal Highway Administration. She developed the North American conference Weeds Across Borders and connects transportation decisionmakers with applied science via the quarterly newsletter Greener Roadsides and the FHWA website http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/roadsides.

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