It is well known that millions of acres of wetland, countless miles of waterway, and endless acres of habitat in the United States have been damaged by human development. In the past, the effort to save and protect the remaining natural areas has been very beneficial and slowed the destruction of natural lands and the environmental functions they provide.
However, it is less commonly understood that large-scale future improvements and net gains for the environment depend entirely on restoring previously degraded areas — rather than simply protecting the natural areas that remain.
Many degraded areas hold the potential for restoration and permanent protection, such as streams and creeks polluted and eroded by livestock or urban development, major rivers dammed by early industry, and wetlands clear-cut, ditched and drained for agriculture.
Restoration Systems restores and protects land and water by purchasing a permanent conservation easement or fee-simple interest from property owners, and physically restoring the waterways, trees and vegetation to exceed current function and duplicate historic functions as closely as possible.
As projects are put in place by RS and meet government standards over time for ecological improvement, Restoration Systems is issued “mitigation credits” by state and federal agencies that regulate development.
The sale of the credits funds Restoration Systems’ beneficial activities. Credits may be purchased by mitigation fee programs, public works projects, or commercial developers (including highway authorities, airports, reservoirs, mining operations and builders) to meet their mitigation obligations. These impacts are generally allowed only after a public process, which demands the impact be avoided and minimized to the extent possible before mitigation of impacts is required.