The Wetlands Solutions Mitigation Bank in George County was developed to provide mitigation for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits for unavoidable impacts to wetlands.
The purchase of the George County site for habitat restoration, enhancement, and preservation of bottomland hardwoods and wetlands, prevented it from being broken up and sold into smaller parcels for residential development.
The bank’s restoration, enhancement, and preservation activities will generate wetland credits that can be sold to others to offset unavoidable wetland impacts within the geographic service area. A conservation easement secures perpetual preservation.
Historically, this site has been a bottomland hardwood system in the Pascagoula River floodplain. The bank’s objective is to restore and replicate the historic bottomland hardwood conditions. All credits are bottomland hardwood wetland credits and will be used to offset impacts on similar habitat in the area.
There are 149 acres of uplands in the bank, but there are no available credits for non-wetland acres. However, the ecology and function of the two habitat types are interdependent. This mixture of upland and wetland habitat on the site increases the overall biological diversity.
Success Stories
Read through the stories of 12 landowners and the success that the conservation easements had.