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Changes to the environment due to innovation and economic growth happen across the globe every day. As part of its regulatory mission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversees the permitting of new construction and evaluates its environmental impacts, both locally and globally.
Abby Steele serves as the Iowa Branch Chief for the Regulatory Division at the USACE Rock Island District. As Steele explained, her area of responsibility is unique: “We are in charge of regulating the placement of dredge or fill material in Waters of the United States (WOTUS). In the Rock Island District, this includes the state of Iowa, two-thirds of the state of Illinois, and just a bit of Missouri. St. Paul District’s Regulatory Division handles Minnesota and Wisconsin. Regulatory’s boundaries are completely different than those for civil works projects.
Within these boundaries, Steele and others in the Regulatory Division ensure that the environmental impacts to the region’s waters are minimized.
“Permanent wetland impacts over one-tenth of an acre and permanent stream impacts over 0.03 acres usually requires mitigation,” said Steele. “That’s where mitigation banking comes in.”
According to Steele, previous mitigation efforts involved something called ‘permittee-responsible mitigation,’ where they would go out, find a site, and restore or enhance a wetland or stream.
“Many of these mitigation efforts were failing to replace lost aquatic functions effectively across the U.S.,” said Steele. “People weren’t maintaining the sites and it was also a nightmare to manage thousands of permittee-responsible mitigation sites.”
As Steele explained, “There was inconsistency in how mitigation was approved and managed across the different USACE districts so the 2008 mitigation rule established uniform standards for planning, site selection, monitoring, performance criteria, and long-term maintenance. Mitigation bank approval takes about a year, and Rock Island District is the number one district in the nation for getting banks through the approval process the fastest.”
Getting these projects approved can be incredibly labor-intensive. Thankfully, USACE is equipped to help streamline the process.
“By working with mitigation bankers, USACE helps facilitate a fair and efficient process for restoring wetlands and streams before construction begins,” said Steele.
As she explained, “These mitigation banks take the guesswork out of the equation for developers. Instead of navigating complex mitigation requirements on their own, companies receive a permit that specifies how many credits they need to offset their project’s impact.”
Continuing, Steele said, “from there, they contact the mitigation bank, purchase the required credits, and can then move forward. They are not permitted to begin construction or disturb WOTUS until those credits are secured. Securing these credits is relatively straightforward, according to Steele.
“Wetland credits are usually purchased on a one-to-one ratio. One acres equals one credit. In Iowa, the majority of our wetlands are in poor condition because historically theyhave been drained in the past. In areas with high-quality wetlands, the ratio can go up higher.”
In Iowa, areas ripe for restoration are plentiful, and many are eager to participate in the mission.
Steele added, “Our banks are very diverse here in Iowa. The first banks we established were with private landowners who learned about the mitigation banking industry. It can be a very lucrative business here in Iowa. These landowners found out about it and realized they had a lot of farmland that was already wet.”
“What’s the easiest wetland to restore in Iowa? Farmed wetlands, because they’re tiled and some of these tiles have failed, causing water to accumulate. Plants like corn won’t grow well in these wetter areas, so what they can do is break the tile lines throughout the filed, and the hydrology usually naturally returns,” Steele clarified.
Historically, tiles have been beneficial for farming, but they’ve changed the hydrology of the land. By transforming these areas back into proper wetlands, USACE is helping to reverse these changes. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, over 11% of the state was naturally occurring wetlands before settlers attempted to tame the land. In the process, they stripped over 95% of those wetlands.
Through mitigation banking, these original wetlands are being restored, giving the soil, hydrology and hydrophytic vegetation an opportunity to heal and return to the nutrient-rich land Iowa is known for.
“Wetlands filter out pesticides, excess farm nutrients, and other pollutants, significantly improving water quality by absorbing and breaking them down,” said Steele. “The mitigation program doesn’t just aid in nutrient reduction, it also plays a vital role in reducing flood risks by allowing these natural areas to absorb and slow down stormwater.”
Naturally, this boom in mitigation credits is attracting new investment, as Matt Zehr, Regulatory Division Chief explained.
Zehr said, “In the past couple of years, mitigation companies have started entering Iowa and Illinois. While they’ve worked in other parts of the U.S., they’re just beginning to expand here. These companies have the financial means to look for sites and make contracts with landowners. The landowner retains ownership of the land, and the companies work with us to get the sites approved. They handle all the design work, engineering, and construction and become the bank sponsor.”
This shift in partnerships and responsibilities is having a significant impact on the Regulatory mission, not only in the Rock Island District but across the U.S., Zehr explained.
“Mitigation banking helps both our states and communities. We’re putting wetland and stream restorations on the ground—that’s amazing—but it also helps our program. My project managers’ jobs are made easier because of mitigation banks. If my project managers had to do permittee-responsible mitigation for every project requiring mitigation, it would significantly increase the permitting time for both us and applicant. Banking makes our review timeline more efficient, and research has shown that banks are more likely to result in a successful restoration than permittee responsible mitigation,” said Zehr.
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.17.2025 07:01 |
| Story ID: | 542941 |
| Location: | CORALVILLE, IOWA, US |
| Web Views: | 59 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Banking on Wetlands: The Role of Mitigation Credits in Environmental Restoration, by Jordan Raiff, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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