ARTICLES

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The Effects of Wetland Mitigation Banking on People PDF

by J. B. Ruhl and James Salzman

In the first comprehensive empirical study of the demographics of wetland mitigation banking, the authors find a systematic, pervasive downside to the practice. Banking facilitates the redistribution of wetland resources from urban to rural areas, reallocating the important environmental services wetlands provide human communities.

J. B. Ruhl is the Matthews and Hawkins Professor of Property at the Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee, Florida. He can be reached at jruhl@law.fsu.edu. James Salzman is a professor at the Duke University School of Law and the Nicholas School of the Environment. He can be reached at salzman@law.duke.edu. Special thanks to research assistant Adam Schwartz, FSU College of Law Class of 2006; Keith Ihlanfedlt, FSU Eminent Scholar in economics; participants in workshops at the University of Minnesota, Georgetown University, and the Georgia State University College of Law; and to Kirl Kim and Tom Chapman of the FSU Geography Department.

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Mitigation Rule Coming Soon PDF

by Palmer Hough and Mark Sudol

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may have published the much-anticipated proposed rule concerning wetland mitigation. The rule is a response to a rider attached to the 2003 defense spending bill that required the Corps to establish performance standards for mitigation projects by 2005. You can access the rule at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html. Below is a message from drafters of the rule, in which they explain the purpose of the rule and sketch an overview of its contents.

Palmer Hough is ad environmental scientist in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wetlands Division. Mark Sudol is chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Branch.

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Supporting Sensible Salting, and Author’s Response PDF

by Richard Hanneman and Nancy Karraker

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Biodiversity at Risk in Isolated Wetlands PDF

by Patrick Comer and Kathy Goodin

What are we losing when we fail to regulate wetlands with legally debatable connections to navigable waters? Experts often answer this question with estimates of the monetary value of services such wetlands provide or the probable costs, in terms of flood damage or pollution, of failure to regulate. Here, researchers offer a new, concrete, and sobering response.

Patrick Comer oversees the Terrestrial Ecology Department of NatureServe, an umbrella institution for a network of natural heritage programs that provides data and expertise for effective biodiversity conservation. He has worked extensively with wetland classification, mapping, and evaluation throughout the United States. He can be reached at pat_comer@natureserve.org. Kathy Goodin is Deputy Director of Science at NatureServe’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. She can be reached at kathy_goodin@natureserve.org.

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Mitigation Banking: It’s No Myth PDF

by Richard K. Mogensen

Wetland mitigation banking is not the risky and potentially environmentally unsound proposition that NWF and some groups might have you believe, argues Richard Mogensen of the National Mitigation Banking Association. Rather, it is a regulated, secure, and ecologically beneficial way of compensating for unavoidable wetland losses.

Richard Mogensen has degrees in biology from the University of Connecticut and geology from the University of Colorado. He has more than 20 years of wetland consulting experience and established Marsh Resources Inc., one of the first mitigation banking companies in the United States. He is the immediate past president of the National Mitigation Banking Association and currently is director of the mid-atlantic mitigation office of EarthMark Companies, an environmental restoration and development firm. This article was written with the help of Howard Bleichfeld with the law firm Van Ness Feldman P.C. and was reviewed by the NMBA Board of Directors. Mr. Mogensen can be reached at richmogensen@earthmark.us.

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Preserving Turtle Metapopulation Dynamics During Transportation Improvement PDF

by Teresa Amitrone

Transportation planners know that any unavoidable effects of their projects on wildlife must be understood, quantified, and offset. When the species in question is protected under state and federal law, the stakes are even higher. The author explains the many challenges and surprises associated with tracking potential impacts to bog turtles in Pennsylvania.

Teresa Amitrone is a wildlife biologist with Skelly and Loy Inc., a privately owned engineering and environmental consulting firm with six mid-atlantic offices and more than 200 employees, headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Skelly and Loy offers broad-based natural resource services, including the specialized niche service of investigating the status of threatened and endangered species. Ms. Amitrone can be reached at tamitrone@skellyloy.com.

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