Page 42 - North American Clean Energy July/August 2019 Issue

wind power
Banking on Endangered Species
by Paul Sherman and Josiah Maine
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JULY•AUGUST2019 /// www.nacleanenergy.com
When land development projects
cause environmental impacts, conservation banks can provide an e cient o set solution.
Conservation banks are speci c areas of land established when a private entity works with a federal agency - such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) - to nd a speci c area of land that can be enhanced, preserved, and protected as habitats to bene t species that are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Wind developers needing to o set potential ESA impacts can use conservation bank credits (units of trade generated by the enhancements and protections described above) from these banks to compensate for anticipated adverse impacts to threatened, endangered, or special-status species in similar ecosystems.
Conservation credits can only be used when they cover the same species and habitats as those a ected. For example, a conservation bank may have been established to bene t a sh in a freshwater stream. However, those same credits may not be used to o set impacts to a forest-dwelling woodpecker.
In addition, when the credits are preserving similar nearby ecosystems, they serve as new habitats for species within the developer’s proposed project site. Conservation banks enable developers to reduce their environmental impact immediately, and help control project costs and timelines.
e alternative to using credits is to, essentially, do it yourself. at means acquiring property, reviewing the biology, developing a resource enhancement and long-term management plan, performing the necessary restoration actions, monitoring the
site for success and xing things if or when it doesn’t succeed. Additionally, you will manage the site in perpetuity. Not only can these activities be a long-term burden, but they take developers’ attention away from their core business.
In areas that are occupied or visited by Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats, this do-it-yourself approach often had
been the only option available to developers looking to build a road, install a power line, or otherwise address infrastructure or other construction needs. Now there’s an alternative.
First-of-its-Kind Conservation Bank
e Chariton Hills Conservation Bank in Missouri provides 1,300 acres of dedicated natural space for the Indiana and northern long-eared bats, which are listed as threatened or endangered in the U.S. By conserving this landscape, the bank o ers credits to developers, who can then use them to o set impacts their work might have on the two species.
e bank is a trailblazing program in terms of both Missouri and national ecological preservation. Along with its status as the rst conservation bank in Missouri approved by the USFWS, the bank is also the rst in the U.S. to explicitly protect the Indiana and the northern long-eared bat.
Both species have long been federally listed as endangered
or threatened, with their numbers continuing to decline across their ranges. To combat this troubling issue, the Charlton Hills properties were carefully selected by a team of bat biologists to serve as a designated preservation site for Indiana and northern long-eared bats for summer maternity, roosting and foraging. Once selected, the team performed environmental enhancements and developed interim and long-term management plans.
Developers of projects with impacts that fall within the Chariton Hills Conservation Bank service area are able to purchase these pre-approved credits to o set their development impacts.
e Chariton Hills Conservation Bank primary service area encompasses projects in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, as well as areas in the northern part of the state. Developers in the