Take It to the Mitigation banking allows parks to restore streams and wetlands at no cost to taxpayers By Richard J. Dolesh I n the past several years, an exciting opportunity has emerged for public park and recreation agencies to participate in advanced land conservation strategies through participation in formal mitigation projects, particularly wetland and stream mitigation projects. The practice of replacing or restoring natural resources in one area to offset the loss or damage to similar resources in another area through mitigation has long been acknowledged as one of the best practical solutions to the loss of valuable natural resources that results from development. In practice, mitigation is the formal process of requiring compensatory actions for the loss of aquatic resources as required by the Clean Water Act and other state and federal laws. Mitigation has resulted in the conservation of hundreds of thousands of acres of natural lands and thousands of miles of streams across the nation that otherwise would have not been protected. 36 Parks & Recreation | J U LY 2 0 1 3 | W W W. N R PA . O R G