Why You Should Pay Attention to Stream Mitigation Banking

Stream mitigation banking is rapidly becoming a major driver of the stream restoration industry, particularly in the Southeast. Like other types of mitigation banking regulated by the Clean Water Act Section 404 program, stream mitigation banking (SMB) gives developers the option to offset construction impacts by purchasing "credits." These credits are generated by for-profit companies that restore damaged streams on a speculative basis and are approved by federal regulatory agencies. In states such as North Carolina, SMB has now eclipsed wetlands banking in terms of number of credits bought and sold. SMB is becoming a major private-sector source of stream restoration funding, perhaps presaging a major shift in what has been until now a predominantly publicly funded market. In addition to its growing economic importance, the emerging practice of SMB is worth attention because many of the tensions and debates that have been settled in the more established practice of wetlands mitigation banking are still unresolved, and thus potentially open to input from practitioners and scientists. The most important of these are the proper amount and location of compensation, and how stream credits should be certified and measured.