Mitigation banks, and other compensatory mitigation

Mitigation banks, and other compensatory mitigation strategies, help make natural resources exploration, extraction, processing and other development activities possible, while protecting aquatic resources and their functions. Photographed is a stream that is undergoing restoration at a mitigation bank site in Spanishburg, W.Va. Mitigation banking is a form of trade wherein aquatic resources such as wetlands and streams are rehabilitated or restored to create credits fit for sale in the form of acres and functions. These credits are then purchased by those causing unavoidable impacts.