DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF A WETLAND BANK AS A MlTIGATrON ALTERNATIVE IN 



IDAHO. 



R.B. TIEDEMANN, CFS, CWB. Ecologist, Idaho Transportation Department, Boise, Idaho, 



83707. 



ABSTRACT 

 Federal policy requires the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) to avoid impacts to wetlands by 

 altemarive roadway locations or benign construction techniques. Impacts to wetlands for which there 

 is no "practicable alternative" require nritigarion in the form of restoration or compensation. 



Wedand restoration is, at times, inqxjssible to accomplish on-site, comes with such risk that successful 

 mitigation cannot be assured, or can be accomplished only at extraordinary cost Use of a previously 

 constmcted, o£f-site wetland may be appropriate in these situations to compensate for wedand losses. 



This paper documents development of the wetland banking concept in the State of Idaho and the 

 consensus building which has led to a memorandum of agreement with all resource and regulatory 

 agencies with a stamtory interest in wedand issues. Wedand banking has been used in other states to 

 mitigate for the impacts of a single project or to compensate for minor wetland losses. However, the 

 Idaho effort is the first to enlarge the scope of wetland banking to an entire state and to all the activities 

 of a single agency. 



This paper describes the issues associated with wedand banking and their resolution by an inter-agency 

 team; the mechanics of the wetland bank and the activities for which it may be used; and the 

 philosophy and components of conceptual site plans for wedand banks. The preliminary results of a 

 wetland revegetation experiment are presented. 



INTRODUCTION 

 Rarely do resource, regulatory, and development agencies adjourn from a a series of meetings with 

 everyone agreeing that their interests have been best served- However, the unlikely appears to have 

 happened with the recent development of an agreement authored by the Idaho inter-agency wetland 

 banking team. 



Over the past three years the Idaho inter-agency wedand banking team has investigated die usefulness 

 of banking as a mitigation alternative for roadway impacts to wetlands in Idaho. Team members 

 include representatives from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection 

 Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Administration, and Idaho Departments of Hsh 

 and Game, Water Resources, Health and Welfare, Lands, and Transportation. 



This paper offers a toolbox of ideas, based on our experience, for you to develop or evaluate wetland 

 banks in your own region. I will describe the issues associated with wedand banking and their 

 resolution by the inter-agency team; the mechanics of the wedand bank and the activities for which a 

 bank may be used; and the philosophy and components of conceptual site plans for wedand banks. 

 And finally, I will present the preliminary results of a wedand revegetation experiment designed to 

 improve our ability to replicate natural systems. 



In our first meeting - held November 19, 1985 - we identified both common ground and differences 

 which had to be resolved to develop an agreement. 



* IN: Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Wetland Scientists: Restoration, Creation, and 

 Management of Wetland and Riparian Ecosystems of the American West 



