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| Danny Moran |
By Danny Moran
Ed. Note:
Danny Moran is Managing Director of EcoSystem Renewal, and was elected Vice
Chairman of the National Environmental Banking Association in 2017. He has more
than 30 years of experience in the mitigation field, land management and
environmental restoration. His company—with offices in Baton Rouge and
Alexandria , La. and Waller , Texas – is one of the pioneers of wetlands
mitigation banking and one of its latest goals is to help educate the public
about the largely unheralded benefits of mitigation banking.
Tremendous
gains in environmental conservation and restoration achieved through wetlands
mitigation banking deserve to be more widely known and recognized.
Wetlands
mitigation banking has established a track record of success in restoring and
preserving crucial ecosystems in many states during the past several decades.
Now the proven system is positioned to grow and expand even faster, combining
the best of strong environmental regulation and oversight with sound science
and private sector innovation and adaptability.
Commercial
development relies heavily on mitigation banks in states such as Florida ,
where population growth requires land and much of the land is environmentally
vulnerable, laced with creeks, rivers, wetlands and woods.
Any
time a Florida project – commercial, retail, residential, public or private –
needs to offset unavoidable impact, they can turn to one of more than 60
mitigation banks in the state, to purchase available credits.
Revenue from the
sale of the credits goes to create, restore, enhance or preserve
environmentally sensitive land in a bank site.
A
mitigation bank is a piece of land that has potential, and natural attributes,
but may have been altered or damaged in the past, perhaps through ditching
and drainage, logging, farming, ranching overuse or abuse that changed the
landscape.
To restore the
site to function as part of a healthy ecosystem as nature intended takes time
and money, planning and preparation. Mitigation banking is a proven way to
achieve those goals, tackling the complex challenge by combining strengths of
both the public and private sectors.
Mitigation
bank sites that receive federal and regional approvals and certification are funded
by investors, including developers, a technique that began in a small way in
the 1980s and 1990s.
If a development
project, such as construction of a major highway, pipeline or infrastructure,
is unable to avoid the taking or altering of wetlands, it may “mitigate,” or
offset that loss, by investing in restoration and conservation of an approved
mitigation bank site.
By doing so, development itself helps pay for
restoring critical habitat and ecosystems, furthering a laudable federal goal
of achieving “no net loss of wetlands.”
For
example, one land bank in metro Orlando, the Wekiva Mitigation Bank,
preserves critical freshwater habitat around Rock Springs Run feeding into the
Wekiva River , which holds the distinction of being a federally designated Wild
and Scenic River.
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| Will Beaty, Director of Marketing |
More than 70 impact
permittees have purchased credits in that bank site since 2005, for
projects including schools, business centers, office buildings, an airport,
subdivisions and numerous roadways including the new Wekiva Parkway.
My
company alone has overseen the rehabilitation of thousands of acres throughout
the South and is taking on new projects regularly. We were recently
selected to co-manage East Bay Farms, LLC sponsor of the Gulf Coastal Plains
Mitigation Bank in South Texas .
The 1,957-acre site is a fully approved
wetlands mitigation bank in the Galveston Region and has a variety of credits
available. The “credits” are purchased by developers to offset their own
projects once the work is permitted and unavoidable losses are calculated.
Every step of the process is governed by
strict regulations to meet the Clean Water Act and other environmental
provisions overseen by agencies such as the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the
Environmental Protection Agency.
The
turn-key approach we’ve developed to oversee projects from start to finish has
successfully helped restore vulnerable sites throughout Florida , Louisiana and
Texas , particularly along the fragile Gulf Coast . Recently we have been
ramping up efforts to assist more public and private landowners and developers
in navigating the mitigation system.
Maximum
benefits flow to the environment, society and the private sector when a
mitigation job is done right. The biological, hydrological and engineering
expertise of our restoration teams is used to recreate historic conditions and
to enhance biological and wildlife communities.
To achieve a
client’s environmental objective we employ a unique balance of sophisticated
science, regulatory knowledge and capital investment.
Our
integrated approach enables us to manage or oversee every aspect of a project,
from initial market and site analysis to design, construction and
implementation, with long-term operational considerations baked into the
process from the start.
Mitigation banks
establish endowment funds, for example, to ensure that once a site has been
properly restored with the right blends of native foliage, vegetation and
hydrology, the property can be well maintained and monitored.
Gulf
Coastal Plains Mitigation Bank in the Galveston Bay watershed is being restored
to historic freshwater and intermediate salt marshes that existed before the
property was converted to cropland decades ago.
Surrounded by
the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, the site is within the Mississippi
migratory flyway, and once fully restored will add additional prime resting and
foraging space for annual fall and spring bird migrations. The open land will
be protected in perpetuity by a conservation easement.
While
a successful restoration project can be a decisive win-win for the environment,
landowners, and public and private entities, it takes a tremendous amount of
attention to detail at every step to meet the strict regulatory and legal
requirements that govern the process.
The reputation of the mitigation banking
sector is at stake with every new project and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
and other agencies rely heavily on firms with a track record of success.
Contact: Danny Moran
(225) 978-9401(mobile) or (225-928-5678 (office)
