Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it had awarded nearly $5 million in grant funding through its Wetland Mitigation Banking Program (WMBP). The grant program supports the development of mitigation banks for the restoration, creation or enhancement of wetlands to compensate for the impacts to wetlands at other locations.
Since its inception in 2016, the program has contributed more than $12.4 million to wetlands in 11 states. This year’s awards prioritized projects in states with large amounts of wetlands as well as large numbers of producers with wetland determination requests.
“The Wetland Mitigation Banking Program supports critical wetland restoration and protection while also expanding options for farmers and ranchers,” said Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Terry Cosby. “Wetlands provide valuable ecosystem functions, including wildlife habitat and groundwater recharge. These projects allow us to collaborate with states, local governments, and other qualified partners to restore, create and enhance wetland ecosystems.”
The awarded projects include:
- $581,000 for Magnolia Land Partners LLC in Illinois
- $516,000 for Wisconsin DNR
- $496,000 for Corblu Ecology Group LLC in Georgia
- $846,000 for Magnolia Land Partners LLC in Nebraska
- $992,000 for Minton Environmental Consultants LLC in Missouri
- $575,000 for Wildlife Mississippi
- $875,000 for North Dakota Agricultural Mitigation Inc.
The WMBP helps agricultural producers comply with wetland conservation provisions and conserve ecologically important wetlands by allowing for off-site mitigation through the purchase of credits from wetland banks established and run by local partners.
NRCS awarded the first WMBP grants in 2016 and so far, 21 wetland bank sites have been established through the program, totaling 313 acres. Several more sites have been secured and are in various stages of the restoration process. States with awarded projects include Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota.
Awardees may use WMBP funding to support mitigation bank site identification, development of a mitigation banking instrument, site restoration, land surveys, permitting and title searches, and market research.
