Check out My Story & 18 year Career Background in Wetland Mitigation Banking

Check out My Story & 18 year Career Background in Wetland Mitigation Banking

My 18 year career as an entrepreneur in the Environmental Mitigation & Wetland Restoration industry allows compensatory mitigation off-sets required by state and federal agencies that regulate development in sensitive areas. 

Our mitigation banks total more than 40,000 acres of preserved & restored land throughout Florida. 

Wetland Mitigation Banks improve the quality of environmental restoration and mitigation by locating and acquiring the best properties, planning the site restoration using best practices, constructing and planting the site in the most conscientious manner, and maintaining and monitoring the property over the long term. 

Whether wetland mitigation other ecological restoration or water quality improvement, each mitigation bank is protected, in perpetuity, by environmentally protective conservation easements. Our commitments are permanent.

Winter Springs Wetland Mitigation

Winter Springs Wetland Mitigation

My Opponent, Kick the Cannon, has been very negative of my business with Wetland Mitigation Banking.

However, did you know, that in 2017, The City of Winter Springs received a SJRWMD permit which authorized 0.63 Acres of Direct Wetland Impacts for a NEW Parking Lot and Basketball Courts at TORCASO PARK!? 

So add hypocrite to the list of things Kevin Cannon attributes. Not the advocacy we need in Winter Springs

The City purchased 0.147 UMAM Mitigation Credits which provided 2.5 Acres of Wetland Mitigation for Torcaso Park from Lake Jesup Mitigation Tract!!

Within the SJRWMD Technical Staff Report it actually states that Elimination or reduction of impacts was not required for the 0.63-acre direct impacts to W1 because the ecological value of the functions provided by the area of wetland to be adversely affected is low, and the proposed mitigation will provide greater long term ecological value than the area of wetland to be adversely affected, pursuant to Section 10.2.1.2(a.) ERP A.H. Volume I.

If you like to learn more about my industry and how we work with both the state and federal agencies to protect natural lands please visit https://mitigationbankinginc.com/

Lake Jesup Restoration Site

Lake Jesup Restoration Site

Thanks to the brilliant minds of The Friends of Lake Jesup, we are now in discussions of a potential mitigation bank.

“Site 10” is owned by The City of Sanford, this 1,000+ acre parcel would be an excellent preservation/restoration project to clean up Lake Jesup! I am currently working with the Former Mayor of Sanford and environmental consultants to look into restoring this property to the benefit of Lake Jesup. I am excited to collaborate on this possible win-win solution for our environment and the economy.

Site Details:

3.2.3 CITY OF SANFORD “SITE 10” FACILITY The Sanford Reuse Land Application Facility (“Site 10”) is located on the northeastern shore of Lake Jesup. Site 10 is approximately 1,868 acres, of which 1,252 acres are in the Lake Jesup Basin. Agriculture (pastures and citrus groves) and wetlands are the major land uses on the site. The City of Sanford NPDES permit allows discharge to a permitted capacity slow-rate reuse system on Site 10, including reclaimed water storage on site in two holding ponds. The water from the ponds is used to irrigate the hay fields and citrus groves on the site. In addition, the previous permit identified Site 10 as an area where land application of residuals occurred and this application began in May 1997 (CDM, 2007). Residuals application on Site 10 was discontinued in 2009 and the current permit prohibits land application of residuals on Site 10. As noted above, the TMDL only accounted for the surface runoff loads from the site and did not estimate the TP loads associated with the reuse water and residual application activities. During the BMAP process, the stakeholders requested that the total loading from Site 10 be determined. To help accomplish this, two studies were conducted: one by CDM as a consultant for the City of Sanford (City of Sanford Site 10 Data Evaluation) and one by the FDEP Ground Water Protection Section (Ground Water Assessment Report for Site 10). CDM and FDEP used two different models with different assumptions and EMC values, which resulted in different loading estimates. Details on both of these studies can be found in Appendix G. The purpose of the CDM analysis was to model runoff from the site with revised land use information. This analysis estimated that the site has a stormwater loading of 883 lbs/yr of TP or 573 lbs/yr of TP with BMPs in place (CDM, 2007). The FDEP assessment focused on shallow ground water conditions on Site 10. The purpose of this assessment was to provide current information for shallow groundwater in the hay field areas that drain to Lake Jesup. The TP concentrations from the monitoring wells ranged from non-detect to 5.3 mg/L, with a median for the four hay fields of 0.76 mg/L. A portion of the TP concentration was also attributed to natural conditions in the area (FDEP, 2008).

The 632 lbs/yr of TP that was calculated as the surface runoff load (refer to Section 2.5.2.2) was included in the allocation table as the starting point load for Site 10, which provided the basis for the required reduction. Since the load from the reclaimed water and residual applications were not originally considered in the TMDL, the 3,489 lbs/yr of TP from these sources was not included in the BMAP allocations. However, the City of Sanford has proposed projects to reduce the loading from these sources on Site 10 and also monitoring to determine water quality improvements. The projects to address these loads are discussed in Section 4.1.2 and the proposed monitoring efforts are discussed in Section 5.1.3.4. In the next cycle of the TMDL, the monitoring data will be used to provide a better estimate of the total load from Site 10 and this information will be incorporated into the TMDL and allocations.

Mitigation Banking Companies in Florida

Mitigation Banking Companies in Florida

My Career in Environmental Restoration began as an intern in 2004, since then I have worked closely with landowners who provide preservation, restoration and enhancement of large tracts of land to manage crucial ecosystems. To obtain a mitigation banking permit takes approx 2-8 years, and the landowner must have a conservation easement on the land as well as a Short Term & Long Term Trust Fund to ensure the land is managed in perpetuity.

The Environmental Protection Division (EPA) authorizes wetland impacts with a permit mandated by State and Federal Regulatory Programs. To be able to obtain a permit you must show that you worked to avoid and minimize the potential impact. The permitting process to obtain a permit for this adverse impact is approx 3 months -2 years.

It costs approx $70,000.00/acre of Wetland impact of an average quality wetland in Florida.

However, in Lake Jesup Basin (Winter Springs); wetland mitigation is the most expensive in the United States, as wetland mitigation is approx $220,000.00/acre of impact.

These extensive costs burden the landowner who wants to develop the land, hence to think twice and consider an upland or re-establishment of existing development.

There are currently 127,000 acres of private land in Florida that were previously in jeopardy of development. Instead of the pressure of developing the land, the landowner chose to preserve that land by placing a conservation easement on the property, which will prevent the property from ever being developed.

Not only does mitigation banking preserve land but the main focus is the Restoration: Fixing Broken Swamps, that have been dredged and filled and bringing the wetlands back to their natural state!!! Such as: Restoring the Hydrology of the land, removing exotic species, planting native species, etc…

Prior to the 1970’s, the government encouraged wetland impacts! Now they only allow the impacts with a permit and require compensatory mitigation to off-site the wetland impact so there is a no-net loss of environmental resources. All mitigation is required to be within the same watershed basin as the property of impact.

Purchasers of mitigation credits include:

– Single Family Homeowner (ex: needs access to home via driveway) 

– Roads 

– Gas Line Expansions (Energy Related Projects)

– Airport Expansion

– Municipalites: Fire Stations, Schools, Bridge Replacements, etc..

– Commercial/Residential Landowners 

I am focused on the protection of Florida’s environment by utilizing market-based incentive strategies. We need to financially incentivize our private landowners to be able to monetize by Preserving and Restoring the land, incentivising the landowner for Land Stewardship!