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| Danny Moran |
BATON ROUGE, LA - The National Environmental Banking Association (NEBA)
has issued recommendations that directors say can help stabilize and strengthen
the $4 billion industry in its effort to combat an “alarming continuation of
environmental destruction.”
Privately funded mitigation banks have established a record
of success for decades restoring and preserving wetlands and other
environmentally sensitive land and, with a few adjustments to a 2008 federal
rule, the sector could solidify and expand the gains, NEBA says in a proposal
submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
“Banking is the only solution to environmental impacts that does not in
some way involve increased costs to taxpayers,’” NEBA said in the document
filed in August. NEBA Vice Chairman Danny Moran, who helped draft
the recommendations, said a solid set of rules that investors can rely on will
vastly increase private investment flowing to restore and protect the
environment through mitigation banks.
“The 2008 Wetland Mitigation Rule has served the industry
well and now is the time to improve and make changes to the Rule to incorporate
what we have learned over the past decade,” said Moran, who is also Managing
Director of EcoSystem Renewal
LLC,
based in Baton Rouge.
Mitigation banks are tracts of land, typically hundreds or thousands of
acres, professionally restored to function as part of an integrated ecosystem,
with proper hydrology, or water flow, and native, natural landscaping with the
appropriate species of trees and vegetation.
Developers of public and private projects can purchase
credits in a wetland mitigation bank to mitigate, or offset, their own
unavoidable impact to wetlands.
Once restored to its original, natural state, the land is
protected by a permanent easement and maintained with a dedicated fund for
future generations.
The 2008 Wetland Mitigation Rule (33 CFR §§ 332.1-332.8), which NEBA says
helped provide a framework for successful mitigation banking, is being reviewed
for changes and strengthening.
CONTACTS:
Danny Moran
Vice Chairman
National
Environmental Banking Assn. and
Managing Director,
EcoSystem Renewal, LLC,
(toll free) 888-294-8101 ext 802
Will Beaty
Director of Sales
and Marketing
EcoSystem Renewal, LLC
888-294-8101 ext 802
Beth Payan,
Larry Vershel Communications, Inc.
407-644-4142
or 407-461-3781
