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Conservation & Mitigation Banks

TerraWest Consulting is an industry leader in the field of conservation and wetland mitigation banks. Landowners attempting to monetize their property utilizing conservation and restoration activities need professional guidance from a team with expertise in biology and ecology as well as real estate and conservation finance to fully capture their land’s ecosystem services value. Bank sponsors have relied upon us to bring together the components crucial to any successful banking venture, including site selection, market and financial analysis, strategic design, bank entitlement, asset management, sales and marketing, and bank disposition and fundraising.

Conservation banks are permanently protected lands that are preserved and managed for their natural resource values. Landowners who establish a conservation bank have the economic advantage to sell habitat credits to developers that impact similar resources.

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Intro to Conservation Banking

Resource Center

What is a Conservation Bank?

What is a Wetland Mitigation Bank?

Goals and Objectives

Planning Considerations

Types of Wetlands

Credit System

Conservation Banking

Conservation banking is a proven, market-based solution that allows sustainable, compliant development to move forward while permanently protecting high-value habitats. At TerraWest Consulting, we help public and private project proponents meet their mitigation requirements efficiently, predictably, and in full compliance with state and federal standards.

Below is a clear overview of how mitigation works, why it’s required, and how TWC supports successful outcomes.

What Is Mitigation?

Mitigation is the process of avoiding, minimizing, or compensating for environmental impacts caused by development, infrastructure, energy, and land-use projects. When a project affects sensitive habitats or species, agencies require those impacts to be offset through conservation actions that provide equal or greater ecological value.

Construction of transmission lines affecting Greater Sage-Grouse habitat
Road or utility projects impacting wetlands, riparian areas, or streams
Solar or wind energy facilities located in big game winter range
Mining, renewable energy, or industrial sites affecting state-listed species
Urban and rural land development altering critical habitat or migration corridors

Mitigation ensures that while development moves forward, the ecological functions that the landscape relies on are protected and restored elsewhere.

Tel: (307) 885-5555

Fax: (307) 885-5525

info(at)terrawestconservancy(dotted)com

Habitat

Wildlife Conservation

Habitat Restoration

Fisheries Enhancement

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Why Is Mitigation Required?

Mitigation requirements come from federal and state regulations designed to conserve wildlife populations and natural resources. Development can proceed, but only when impacts are responsibly offset.

Regulatory drivers include:

Endangered Species Act (ESA)
Clean Water Act (CWA)
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
State mitigation frameworks, such as
- Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) Habitat Mitigation Program (HMP)
- Wyoming’s Greater Sage-Grouse Core Area Strategy
- State-specific big game and habitat protection rules

Example requirements:

A pipeline crossing sensitive mule deer winter range may need to purchase in-kind mule deer winter range credits.
A gold mining operation impacting sage-grouse may need to offset losses with sage-grouse conservation credits.
A solar energy facility may need to mitigate impacts to shrub-steppe habitat or a migration corridor..

Mitigation is required to ensure no net loss of ecological function, and in many cases, agencies require a net benefit to the resource.

How Mitigation Works

When impacts can’t be fully avoided, developers are required to offset those impacts through one of several mitigation pathways approved by state and federal agencies. Conservation banking is often the most efficient and reliable option. Depending on the project type and geographic location, developers may meet their mitigation obligations through:

1. Permittee-Responsible Mitigation (PRM)

Identify mitigation land
Secure long-term protection (such as a conservation easement)
Develop a management plan that outlines habitat objectives, required restoration actions, performance standards,monitoring protocols, timelines, and long-term land stewardship responsibilities.
Implement restoration or enhancement actions
Fund long-term management
Provide monitoring, reporting, and adaptive management
Maintain liability for success criteria for the life of the development project (Often 50 year or more) Obtain agency approval at multiple stages

While PRM is sometimes appropriate, it is often:

Costly due to land acquisition, restoration, monitoring, and long-term management obligations
Time-consuming, often adding years to the permitting schedule as project proponents struggle to find suitable solutions
Uncertain, because ecological outcomes and agency approvals are not guaranteed
High-risk, as the developer assumes full liability for the success of the mitigation for decades

2. In-Lieu Fee (ILF) Programs

In some regions, agencies operate In-Lieu Fee programs, where developers pay a fee and the program sponsor later implements mitigation projects on their behalf.

Example: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state resource agencies jointly oversee ILF programs for wetlands, streams, and certain species in various states.

ILF programs can be a viable option when conservation bank credits are unavailable, but they often involve longer timelines before actual ecological uplift occurs, creating temporal losses that increase the mitigation requirements and costs.

3. Purchasing Credits From a Conservation Bank

Conservation bank credits are pre-approved, agency-certified offsets that provide immediate, turnkey mitigation. This option offers the greatest certainty, the fastest permitting timeline, and the highest ecological durability because the conservation land is permanently protected and managed by a specialized habitat steward.

For these reasons, many developers prefer conservation bank credits, which severs the liability to the developer and transfers risk to a qualified habitat manager, provides immediate ecological benefit, and satisfies agency requirements in a single transaction.

What is a conservation bank?

A conservation bank is large tract of suitable land that has been:

Permanently protected through a conservation easement
Restored or enhanced to improve habitat
Evaluated and approved by regulatory agencies
Assigned credits that represent quantifiable ecological value

These credits can be sold to developers whose projects generate unavoidable impacts.

How this benefits project proponents:

Predictability – credits are pre-approved and ready for use
Efficiency – faster permitting compared to project-by-project mitigation
Regulatory certainty – agencies prefer high-quality, third-party mitigation
Long-term assurances – the bank carries perpetual management obligations, not the developer

Example:

A 500-acre wind project in central Oregon impacts sage-grouse habitat. Instead of creating its own mitigation plan, the developer purchases GSG credits from a conservation bank within the same service area and satisfies its entire compensatory obligation immediately. The developers mitigation plan simply states they are purchasing approved credits from the conservation bank, and liability for the project impacts is transferred to the bank sponsor.

Here’s What We Do (TWC)

TerraWest Consulting (TWC) is one of the leading conservation banking and mitigation experts in the western United States. We specialize in permitting, designing, establishing, and managing conservation banks for both landowners and energy developers.

Our services include:

Conservation Bank Development
- Habitat assessments & baseline biological surveys
- Easement design & land protection strategies
- Agency coordination and permitting
- Credit modeling and service area identification
- Interim & long-term management plans
- Endowment structuring and long-term stewardship agreements
Mitigation Strategy for Developers
- Project impact assessments
- Mitigation pathway analysis (HMP, sage-grouse, wetlands, big game, species-specific programs)
- Credit availability, pricing, and acquisition support
- Full agency-facing documentation and negotiation
- Integrating mitigation into project timelines and budgets
Credit Sales & Transactions
- Matching buyers with available conservation credits
- Transaction structuring and process management
- Documentation required for project permits
- Ensuring compliance with all program requirements

Why Clients Choose TWC

Deep expertise in state and federal mitigation frameworks
Direct relationships with state and federal agencies
Proven track record guiding complex, multi-year mitigation bank approvals
Turnkey support from concept to credit sale
Practical, real-world solutions that maintain project timelines

Whether you’re a landowner seeking to monetize habitat or a developer needing to satisfy mitigation requirements, TWC provides the strategy, permitting, and execution needed for success.