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Wetland mitigation credits available to Illinois farmers

Farmers facing NRCS wetland compliance issues now have a streamlined way to resolve them.

Mike Glester, director of operations with Magnolia Land Partners, says the Illinois Conservation Exchange gives producers access to credits earned by the company’s five wetland mitigation banks.

“You can call a bank sponsor and say ‘Hey, I am in this county. It’s been determined that I have a wetland violation on my property of 1.4 acres. I’d be looking to mitigate that from your bank site. Do you have credits available for me?’” he says.

Nikki Palella, Magnolia analyst, tells Brownfield…

“Within those bank sites, we have different forested and herbaceous wetlands represented.”  She says, “Between those five bank sites we’re actually able to sell these credits to virtually every farmer within the state.”

Glester says it’s a convenient new option.

“Traditionally, the methods in order to fix that would be to fix what you did.”  He says, “So, let’s say you drained a wetland, you’d have to rip up that drain tile and restore it back to the wetland it was, or you could create a wetland somewhere else.”

Glester says purchasing credits from these NRCS-approved bank sites allows producers to quickly meet federal wetland compliance requirements and maintain access to USDA benefits.

A link to learn more can be found HERE.

AUDIO: Mike Glester & Nikki Palella – Magnolia

Photo courtesy of Magnolia