The Wetlandsbank Group (TWG) was founded in 1992 in Florida through the pioneering efforts of David L. John and Robert H. Miller of Miller Legg & Associates, and George I. Platt of Shutts & Bowen, an experienced land use lawyer. Their understanding of the wetlands permitting process combined with enthusiasm for the important ecological benefits of a major wetlands restoration played a significant role in launching this new industry.
In 1993, TWG launched its first mitigation bank in the City of Pembroke Pines, a growing city close to the Everglades in Broward County, Florida. The City owned a 345-acre parcel of vacant, highly degraded wetlands that had been invaded by exotic plants. TWG and the City entered into a negotiated a mitigation bank agreement, the first of its kind in the United States, where TWG agreed to design and construct a new ecosystem for the property, eradicate the exotic species and replace them with a mixture of ten typical everglades habitats including cypress stands, emergent marshes, tree islands and sawgrass prairie. The project was permitted in 1994 and became the first wetlands mitigation bank in the U.S. to transfer a credit with the Army Corps of Engineers. Later, TWG added and restored an additional 107 acres, for a total of 450 acres.
In a recent independent study by Royal Gardner, law professor and Assistant Dean at Stetson University College of Law, the Pembroke Pines Mitigation Bank was determined to be the best wetlands Mitigation Bank in the U.S. Gardner, a former Assistant General Counsel at the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, is regarded as one of the top scholars in the Mitigation Banking industry.
TWGs second bank, Panther Island Mitigation Bank, is one of the premier wetland restoration projects in Southwest Florida. As the name indicates, Panther Island has also created habitat credits for the endangered Florida Panther. Located contiguous with portions of Audubon of Florida's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, the mitigation bank project provides a regionally significant wetland restoration and enhancement program benefits both the freshwater wetland systems and habitat value in the Corkscrew Regional Eco-System Watershed. The National Audubon Society will become the long-term managers of 2,778 acres in Panther Island, which will be a significant addition to the 11,000 acres already under management at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Panther Island has also agreed to restore an additional 1,700 acres for Audubon in a 2008 land swap made with SFWMD to expand its boundaries.
TWG principals partnered on the successful Flint Creek Wetlands Mitigation Bank project in Alabama.
TWG is currently permitting Blackwater Creek Mitigation Bank, a 466-acre restoration project in the Wekiva Basin in fast-growing Lake County, Florida.
The Wetlandsbank Group have partnered with Delta Mitigation Bank to provide wetland credits to the state of Mississippi.
Legacy Farms Stream Bank provides stream mitigation credits for the Upper Ocmulgee and Upper Oconee Basins in Georgia.
The Wetlandsbank Group has identified three key factors in its success: first is the need to offer mitigation solutions based on market demand; second is to ensure that the solution has long-term economic value for the client; and thirdly, the ability to minimize project risks, so called boxing the risk while seeking to maximize profit.
TWG is also working on new mitigation bank, stream bank and habitat conservation bank opportunities in some of the fastest growing counties in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia and Louisiana. In order to fully and properly explore these opportunities, TWG has developed a Mitigation Bank Matrix© that acts as an indicator of the prospects for success of mitigation sites that are presented to TWG for review. TWG is pleased to explore opportunities for private and public-private ventures.
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Mitigation Banksby assignearth577 views
Concise and comprehensive presentation of a wetland mitigation bank
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