Texas-Sized news for RS’ soon-to-open Katy Prairie Stream Mitigation Bank (KPSMB).  The Galveston District of the U.S. Army Corps has put on Special Public Notice a well-composed and carefully considered Standard Operating Procedure for complying with federal requirements for the compensation of streams (as distinct from wetlands).

Below is the new Galveston District Standard Operating Procedure for stream regulation and compensation:

Galveston Corps Stream Mitigation SOP and Tool

The KPSMB was planned by RS in 2007 to coincide within a year or two with the publication of the regulatory document above.  The stream SOP spells out how linear waters will be regulated and mitigated in the Galveston District.  It looks as though RS has succeeded in not being too early or too late on the mitigation side of the equation. The KPSMB will open in the next few weeks, shortly after the mitigation requirements are in place.

The Corps Galveston District did yeoman’s work building a comprehensive stream regulatory program from scratch since the publication of the Federal Mitigation Rule in 2008.  The final product is admirable (and subject to comment over the next year).  The SOP appears to have met the requirement of the Rule for in-kind regulation of streams, and also provided the regulated and banking community with a transparent and workable document from which to begin meeting the requirements.

Houston is America’s 4th largest market and the KPSMB will service the majority of the growing metropolis and its environs.  The bank is scaled to fit the town.  As far as we know, the KPSMB will be the largest permitted stream mitigation bank in the United States, with more than 20 miles of permitted restoration and protection potential.

Perhaps just as exciting for our firm is our land partners in the venture, the Katy Prairie Conservancy (KPC) and the Warrens.  The entire restoration project is situated along streams on the 6000 acre Warren Ranch owned by the KPC and the Warren Family.  The Warren Ranch, among other things, is the largest working cattle ranch in Harris County and Houston.

The Warren Ranch is an ideal location for the establishment of a stream mitigation bank. Here’s why: As credits are sold the Katy Prairie Conservancy and the Warren family will receive a royalty from sales which will allow the Conservancy, if they choose, to retire debt and permanently protect more uplands on the Warren Ranch with conservation easements, or acquire and protect additional threatened property in the watershed. As waters are restored and protected uplands will be protected as well.  A rare but fruitful dynamic in mitigation banking.

We love our landowners at RS but have never seen the proceeds from our real estate transactions go to more wonderful ends than is likely at this ranch and with the Katy Prairie Conservancy.