Turning wetland mitigation into a benefit

摘要

The normal response of a developer upon being told he has a wetland on-site is, "Please say it isn't so!" The developer and the project engineer then are faced with five successive options, as outlined by the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality. First, the developer and the project engineer must try to avoid the wetland. If they can't do that, they need to minimize the impact. The other three options, in order, are rectify by repair, rehabilitation, or restoration; reduce or eliminate impact over time by preservation and maintenance operations; and compensate by replacing.