July 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 41

the reasoning behind the rule was that
larger-scale mitigation projects produced greater ecological benefits than
small piecemeal mitigation projects at
each development site.
Once a stream mitigation bank is
proposed, the USACE and other federal and state agencies rigorously examine the design plan through an interagency review team process (IRT).
The IRT establishes the number of
" credits " that each bank earns, which
then may be sold by bank sponsors to
permittees on an open market. Credits are based on linear feet of streams
restored or other units of measure,
based on a functional assessment of
the restoration and preservation that
will occur. Such credits may vary
widely in monetary value, depending on the complexity and benefits of
the mitigation work performed. Bank
sponsors then pay landowners and investors a set percentage of the credit
sales as they are sold.
In order to gain a permit from federal and state agencies, stream and
wetland mitigation banks require a
perpetual conservation easement or
other similar deed restrictions on the
land to be protected. Bank sponsors
must also set aside a certain amount
of funds in escrow for active management of the bank during the first 10
years - to repair storm damage, for
example - and a lesser amount of
funding for long-term care and stewardship of the bank.
The conservation easement ensures
the permanent protection of the restored stream or wetland and includes
a minimum riparian buffer area along
streams to ensure that the streams
themselves remain protected. Easements must be carefully drawn, however, since they are perpetual and transfer
with the deed from landowner to landowner. With forethought, easements
and deed restrictions can and do allow
for future public use, and can allow for

trails, bridges and even utility crossings.
The greatest value of conservation
easements is that they ensure the land
will never be developed and will always
remain in a conservation status.
Prince William County
Environmental Bank: Early Success
The poster child for success of stream
mitigation banks on public parklands
is the Prince William Environmental
Bank (PWEB), a cooperative project
between the Prince William County
Park Authority (now an agency of
Prince William County, Virginia)
and Angler Environmental. First
envisioned in 2007, this stream mitigation bank was proposed to be
constructed entirely on public park
lands, with Angler assuming all
costs, liabilities and risks for the success of the bank. PWEB included a
number of streams to be restored and
permanently protected, encompassing more than 120,000 linear feet
- well over 20 miles of streams and
riparian buffers in 10 different parks.
The bank is expected to generate between 30,000 and 40,000 mitigation
credits, the sale of which will pay for

needed restoration work and provide
royalty payments to the county estimated at $3.5 million in the first 10
years of operation.
Debbie Andrew, formerly operations manager for Prince William
County Park Authority and now
director of parks and recreation for
Prince William County, reflects on
the stream mitigation project that
began nearly five years ago. " I think
it has been really worthwhile for the
citizens of our county. County residents have seen the direct benefits to
their parks, " she says. " The streams
are being repaired at no cost to the
taxpayer and we are realizing new
revenues to augment our conservation and operations funding. "
Andrew describes the condition
of streams in their parks back in the
mid-2000s: " Much of our county
parkland came from developer donations. A large percentage of these
new park lands contained already
degraded streams. At the time we
didn't have any funding to do any
restoration - we could only watch
Construction crews gradually restore the
stream at Locust Shade Park.

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July 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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