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Offset credits take into account use of natural resources in development

 

By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A policy designed to compensate for federally protected natural resources lost to development was announced earlier this month by President Barack Obama.
The plan calls for “no net loss” of natural resources. Under the policy, developers with projects that could negatively impact those resources would offset the loss by constructing an environment of at least equal value somewhere else. The policy applies to activities on federal public land or any private land that requires compliance with the Clean Water or Endangered Species acts.
“We all have a moral obligation to the next generation to leave America’s natural resources in better condition than when we inherited them,” Obama said in a Nov. 3 Presidential Memorandum. “It is this same obligation that contributes to the strength of our economy and quality of life today.
“American ingenuity has provided the tools that we need to avoid damage to the most special places in our nation and to find new ways to restore areas that have been degraded.”
In his memo, he directs the heads of five federal agencies – USDA, Defense and Interior departments, EPA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – to adopt “a clear and consistent approach for avoidance and minimization of, and compensatory mitigation for, the impacts of their activities and the projects they approve.”
The USDA, through the U.S. Forest Service, has 180 days to create and implement its policy. The Forest Service will have two years from the memo’s date to finalize the plan. The Department of Interior, through the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has a year to establish procedures.
The plan, which expands on a “no net loss” program already in place regarding wetland protection, sets a direction for the agencies to take, said Eric Holst, associate vice president of working lands for the Environmental Defense Fund.
“We think it sets the bar high,” he explained. “It’s a concise and clear policy. It makes good sense and creates a single standard. Our hope is that the agency heads begin the implementation right away.”
As an example of how the program would work, Holst mentioned the construction of a parking lot on land considered a high-quality habitat for the monarch butterfly. If the lot were to impact two acres of the land, the developer would need to replace that land lost somewhere else.
“They would have to construct a habitat of at least equal value,” he explained. “It would have to be at least one-to-one.”
On public lands, the same procedures would be in effect for the construction of such structures as oil wells, gold mines and windmills.
Farmers and ranchers might benefit from the policy by constructing wildlife and natural resource areas on their property, Holst said. They could earn credits which would be purchased by developers in lieu of undertaking the creation of offset projects themselves.
“Farmers and ranchers own and manage much of the land in America, but they don’t get paid for their environmental assets,” he noted. “Farmers miles away from a particular project could earn credit by having these habitats.”
Producers could use buffers and borders already in place to create habitats useful to such species as butterflies, Holst said. “If the land isn’t used for corn or soybeans and if it’s already there to protect a waterway, why not protect wildlife at the same time?”
The market for such credits is just emerging and Holst didn’t know what they might be worth now or later.
“It is a market opportunity for farmers and ranchers,” he said.
“They could establish a natural resource area now, bank the credits and make them available (to developers) in three or four weeks, three or four months or down the road.
“(The policy) helps to unlock more of these opportunities. The market will start developing over time as farmers realize it will help their bottom lines.”
The Department of Interior has already begun working on its policy, according to Michael Connor, deputy secretary.
“As the President and (Interior) Secretary have emphasized, we must always take the long view,” he explained. “We must always keep in mind that public lands are a trust, one that we manage for generations to come.”
11/25/2015