- Diversified Habitats Receives Us Army Corps Of Engineers Approval Of New Wetland Mitigation Bank - November 01, 2000
- Diversified Habitats helps to open new lands for home building. - Deseret News, November, 22, 1997.
- S.L. FIRM 'BUYS INTO' WETLANDS PROTECTION. - Deseret News, Friday, June 7, 1996.
- Company's Path to Profit: Creating Wetlands for Firms That Ruin Them - The Salt Lake Tribune, June 6, 1996
Diversified Habitats Receives Us Army Corps Of Engineers Approval Of New Wetland Mitigation Bank
The US Army Corps of Engineers has given Diversified Habitats approval for the Baileys Meadow Wetland Mitigation Bank. This Wetland Bank will provide off-site wetland mitigation for development projects that cause unavoidable impacts to wetlands in parts of Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Box Elder and Tooele Counties. The credits approved are sufficient to mitigate up to 60 acres of wet meadow and emergent marsh wetlands. Diversified Habitats has been working with the Corps, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to obtain approval for the site since August 1998. This approval provides the go ahead for the creation and enhancement of wetlands on the 96 acre site located northwest of the International Center.
DH originated the wetland banking process in Utah with 56 acres of converted wetlands near Syracuse and adjacent to Great Salt Lake. DH restored the wetlands on the site to provide valuable wildlife habitat. In exchange for this restoration the US Army Corps of Engineers granted DH permission to sell wetland mitigation credits in exchange for scattered impact sites including roads, residential and commercial construction.
In its first year of operations, DH placed 56 wetland credits from its wetland mitigation bank with Utah developers and landowners. Another 130 credits have been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help create large wetland habitats to be exchanged for small isolated wetland impacts at sites desirable for commercial and residential development. Wetland credits are available for mudflat/playa, wet meadow and emergent marsh wetland types. This gives DH the ability to mitigate the major wetland categories within its service area. DH has placed over 100 credits with developers since its inception in 1996. In 1999, DH will provide mitigation for over 30 acres of wetlands and the new site will allow DH to provide additional credits as its existing banks are sold out.
DH creates and enhances large tracts of wetlands adjacent to important existing wetlands. The bank sites are developed in cooperation with public agencies and seek to restore, create and enhance wetland values. In exchange for the creation of these wetlands, the Corps grants DH wetland credits. These credits may be exchanged for unavoidable impacts at development sites.
This project follows the national trend toward wetland banking and consolidation of wetland sites. In most cases, large, well managed wetland complexes provide higher quality habitat than scattered wetland sites. Combining wetlands at one location provides benefits for the wetland resource, developers and the regulatory agencies. The larger site is easier to manage, maintain and monitor than many small sites and can achieve economies of scale not available to smaller projects. Having credits available in advance of the need provides a shortcut through the maze of regulations involved in wetland mitigation. In many cases, permits may be obtained using the wetland bank within one or two months. For most other permits the time can easily exceed one year.
Land dedicated for wetland uses will be donated to The Nature Conservancy or another resource agency for long term maintenance and management as wetlands after they have demonstrated they are functioning successfully.
Diversified Habitats Helps to Open New Lands for Home Building
Until recently, landowners and developers of wetlands had little choice - simply build around the impacted wetlands, fight long and hard with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a rare exemption, or create new wetlands as compensation, called "on-site-mitigation."
Today, there's a new, creative choice - off-site mitigation. Now the federal government encourages the development of large tracts of wetland habitat, in lieu of regulating hundreds of smaller sites. In exchange, the Corps grants habitat development companies, known as "mitigation banks," the right to sell mitigation credits to developers and landowners who may now develop their wetland properties, says Jim Paraskeva, with Diversified Habitats.
Wetlands, which formerly were not buildable, have suddenly become very valuable, Developers now see more opportunities with land already in short supply, especially along the Wasatch Front.
And the Corps achieves its mandate to expand wildlife habitats, improve water quality and storm water detention, increase recreational amenities and create more environmental open space (the Corps is responsible for enforcement of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act that provides protection and mitigation for all wetlands).
"What we do is build a mitigation bank of credits we use to exchange with other sites. This allows builders to use land they would not otherwise be able to use," says Paraskeva.
"We evaluate whether it fits into the Corps' criteria. We then help the owner through the approval process."
There are three steps the Corps follows: 1. Avoid any building on wetlands; 2. On-site mitigation; and 3. Off site-mitigation.
"There are a number of isolated wetlands throughout the Wasatch area, but a lot of them have low value. They're in what I call a 'pond in a parking lot.' That is, there is so much building around the wetlands that wildlife simply won't use it because of all the disturbances. What we can do is work with off-site mitigation in another area that can benefit both the developer and wildlife."
Sometimes this can be a combination of both on and off-site mitigation. That is avoidance in one area, but replacement in another because of the low value to wildlife.
"It's not an all-or-nothing situation. There are alternatives that can be explored," he notes.
However, off-site mitigation is not automatic with the Corps. The agency follows traditional guidelines that favor on-site mitigation and non-development. Only when these alternatives are not workable will the Corps permit off-site mitigation.
The Corps sees the regulatory burden of reviewing hundreds of on-site mitigation projects as overwhelming. Often on-site mitigated projects end up with less benefit than the wetlands that were lost. And the Corps requires that off-site mitigation sites remain West Point or West Valley, for example.
Utah follows the national trend with its first operating wetland mitigation bank. In its first year, Diversified Habitats of Salt Lake City, placed 56 wetland credits from its wetland mitigation bank with intermountain west developers and landowners. More than 100 additional credits have been approved by the Corps for immediate placement.
Diversified Habitats consults with clients on all wetlands issues. Historically, some combination of on-site and off-site mitigation works best especially with large wetland impacts.
To outsiders, the permit process can appear daunting without the assistance of consultants who know the public agency terrain. Considering the short- and long-term costs of development, paperwork, delays and required government approvals, more developers and landowners prefer the short-cut method of working directly with mitigation banks, such as Diversified Habitats.
In most cases, permits may be obtained within one or two months, not years, using Diversified Habitats. Having credits already in place dramatically shortens the approval process.
Each credit mitigates one acre of wetlands. Diversified Habitats serves the Salt Lake, Weber, Davis, Box Elder and Tooele counties. Lands dedicated for wetland habitats will be donated to The Nature Conservancy or other resource agencies for long-term management.
S.L. Firm `Buys Into' Wetlands Protection
A small Utah company figures preserving wetlands is a better way of making money these days than filling them up with rock and dirt for resale as prime real estate.
About 50 percent of the wetlands were lost in previous years, but Congress has since passed a law to protect them. And Diversified Habitats of Salt Lake City literally is buying into that plan.
It has purchased 42 acres of farmland along the Great Salt Lake west of here and proposes to convert it back to its original meadow and marsh condition.
Jim Paraskeva, a partner in the company, said the profit will come from wetland-creation credits the company expects to receive from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. These credits will be sold to companies needing to offset wetland losses in other areas.
Paraskeva declined to discuss the value of the credits but said he is "pretty confident" of making money on the venture.
Federal law discourages the destruction of wetlands, but says if there is no reasonable alternative, a company can proceed as long as it "mitigates," or offsets, that loss through the creation or enhancement of similar habitat elsewhere.
The law has resulted in a growing trend toward larger, commercial ventures known as "wetland mitigation banks," said Bob Brumbaugh, a Corps of Engineers employee who helped write the federal guidelines for these commercial wetland projects.
"The concept has really taken off in the past few years," said Brumbaugh. "Diversified Habitats is the first in the Intermountain Region that I'm aware of."
Credits for wetland mitigation are selling for as much as $50,000 to $100,000 an acre in areas such as Los Angeles and Miami, said Brumbaugh. He has heard of credits selling for as little as $3,000 an acre in more remote areas.
Paraskeva said his project offers an inexpensive and relatively fast mitigation solution for companies that need to replace wetlands acreage so they can build a road or a home, or expand a factory.
Company's Path to Profit: Creating Wetlands for Firms That Ruin Them
As sure-fire way of making money in this country once was to fill a swampy area with rock and dirt and sell it as a valuable piece of commercial real estate.
The process worked so well that America lost about 50% of these ecologically important areas before Congress passed a law to protect them.
A small Utah company now is trying to reverse this process and make money by restoring a wetland near the Great Salt Lake.
Diversified Habitats of Salt Lake City has purchased 42 acres of farmland along the lake west of Layton and proposes to convert it back to its original meadow and marsh condition.
Jim Paraskeva, a partner in the company, said the profit in this venture comes from wetland-creation credits the company expects to receive from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. These credits will be sold to companies needing to offset wetland losses in other areas.
He declined to discuss value of these credits, but said he is "pretty confident" of making money on the venture.
Federal law discourages the destruction of wetlands, but says if there is no reasonable alternative, a company can proceed as long as it "mitigates," or offsets, that loss through the creation or enhancement of similar habitat elsewhere.
This mitigation has traditionally been done on a case-by-case basis in small, scattered parcels. These were costly time-consuming efforts that many times were only marginally successful.
Projects such as Diversified Habitats are part of a national trend toward larger, commercial ventures known as "wetland mitigation banks," said Bob Brumbaugh, a Corps of Engineers employee who helped write the federal guidelines for these commercial wetland projects.
"The concept has really taken off in the last few years, particularly in Florida and California," said Brumbaugh. "Diversified Habitats is the first in the Intermountain Region that I'm aware of."
Credits for wetland mitigation are selling for as much as $50,000 to $100,000 an acre in areas such as Los Angeles and Miami, said Brumbaugh. He has heard of mitigation credits selling for as little as $3,000 an acre in more remote areas.
Paraskeva said his project offers an inexpensive and relatively fast mitigation solution for companies that need to replace a couple acres of wetlands so they can build a road, expand a factory or construct a home.
It should be cheaper because it costs less to develop one 42-acre wetland site than it would to create a bunch of smaller sites.
It also is faster to obtain a permit, he said. Companies trying to develop their own small wetland mitigation site face a mountain of paperwork and delays of up to a year in obtaining all the necessary approvals. Developers of a mitigation bank already have done much of the paperwork, so companies buying credits should be able to obtain a permit within one or two months.
Wayne Martinson, Utah Wetlands Coordinator for the National Audubon Society, said projects like this also can provide greater environmental benefits. Rather than having numerous small, isolated wetlands sites, the mitigation banks offer the possibility of several large, well-designated wetland complexes that should provide greater environmental benefits.
These large complexes should have a greater likelihood of success because of the financial incentive for the developer to make them.
The proposal has been reviewed by several state and federal agencies, and everyone agrees there is a "good likelihood" it will succeed, she said. There also are financial guarantees that the project will be completed even if the company goes bankrupt.
The Corps' Brumbaugh said this type of project is"extremely risky" for investors because no one knows whether Congress is going to change the wetland-protection rules. The market for these projects could dry up if the Republicans take control of the White House and eliminate the requirement for mitigation when small areas of wetlands are filled.
Paraskeva said the company's plan is to spend several years developing the wetlands on this 42-acre parcel. Then the land, water rights, and enough money for long-term management, will be donated to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for long-term management. TNC's Layton Marsh preserve is adjacent to the proposed wetland.
TNC's Chris Montague said he would be glad to accept the donation if the project works out as planned. The 42 acres have long been on the group's list of properties for possible acquisition, but the land was too expensive.
Construction of the 42-acre wetland complex is expected to begin this summer, said Paraskeva. It will consist of 32 acres of "wet meadow" and 10 acres of marsh. Future plans call for a similar development of an adjacent 50-acre site and a 150-acre parcel of mud flat and playa.
-Jim Woolf