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Department of Ecology News Release - April 7, 2009
09-078
BELLEVUE – A wetland restoration project along the Skagit River in and near Mount Vernon received final approval this week from state, local and federal agencies. The project is the first one of its type in Skagit County and the fifth in the state to receive approval under a Department of Ecology (Ecology) pilot wetland mitigation bank program.
Wetland mitigation banks generate credits which represent the increase in wetland functions at the bank site. These credits – subject to regulatory approval – are then available for the bank sponsor to use or available for developers to purchase to offset wetland losses that cannot be avoided. The banking program does not change environmental review standards that protect against the loss of wetlands.
“This wetland project provides one more option for improving the success of environmental mitigation efforts in Skagit County,” said Gordon White, the Ecology program manager who oversees wetlands issues. “Wetland banks provide a readily accessible and more certain way to replace wetlands when the loss can’t be avoided.”
Wetlands provide important environmental functions, including fish and wildlife habitat, water quality protection and natural flood control. State and federal laws prohibit losing wetlands to development without proper mitigation sequencing, including compensation for impacts.
White and officials from four other agencies approved the 241-acre project, owned by Nookachamps LLC. The bank lies within both the urban growth area of Mount Vernon and unincorporated Skagit County. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mount Vernon and Skagit County also approved the conditions under which the company will operate its bank.
Nookachamps will enhance, establish and preserve wetlands along the Skagit River as part of this project. Construction is under way. Projects built in the Skagit/Samish watershed may be eligible to use credits from this bank when available.
A wetland bank is a pre-existing wetland restoration project that provides an important strategy for streamlining the development review process while achieving the goal of no net loss of wetlands. Banks typically will restore large areas of wetland and other habitats, creating better-integrated systems for wildlife and water quality than smaller, scattered projects.
This bank must provide ongoing maintenance and monitoring for 12 years to ensure the wetland restoration project has succeeded. Bank owners also must permanently preserve their sites through a conservation easement and long term management agreements.
Nookachamps is granting a conservation easement to the non-profit Cascade Land Conservancy. The easement – which must be in place before the bank can sell credits – ensures that project land will be permanently protected as a conservation site. Nookachamps is also required to establish financial assurances and a long-term management and maintenance endowment fund prior to receiving credits.
Wetland banks provide more flexibility to landowners and developers whose projects require wetland mitigation. Wetland banking isn’t new to Washington: some local governments and state agencies have established internal wetland banks for their own projects.
The project earned state approval under an Ecology wetland banking pilot program that began in 2004. Ecology recently proposed revised rules for the certification program. (See Ecology news release 09-061 at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2009news/2009-061.html. )
For more information about bank projects and Ecology’s wetland banking program, visit: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/wetlands/mitigation/banking/index.html .
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Media Contacts:
Kim Schmanke, Ecology media relations, 360-407-6239
Nick Harper, Cascade Land Conservancy, 425-303-2555
Jana Hanson, City of Mount Vernon, 360-336-6214
Leah Forbes, Skagit County, 360-336-9410
Army Corps of Engineers, Patricia Graesser, 206-764-3760 EPA, Mark MacIntyre, 206-553-7302
Media visits to the Nookachamps LLC wetland bank: please contact Sky Miller, 360-658-4866.
Ecology’s wetland mitigation banking Web site: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/wetlands/mitigation/banking/index.html
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
