Black River Bottomland Hardwoods Mitigation Bank

                The Black River Bottomland Hardwoods Mitigation Bank has been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control as a multi-user wetland mitigation bank that is available to compensate for wetland impacts in the coastal plain of South Carolina.  The bank  provides needed relief for developers and private property owners who need to impact wetlands on their land and have no on-site mitigation alternatives.
 

                 Wetland mitigation banking is based on the premise that in most instances large scale mitigation banking projects will provide greater ecological benefits that numerous, small on-site mitigation projects.  Because banking mitigation for numerous individual wetland impacts, mitigation sites are larger and generally more viable hydrologically and biologically.  They will also provide functional success in advance of the wetland impacts for which they are intended to mitigate, and can be continuously monitored and managed by technical professionals to insure success and longevity.

                Bottomland hardwood wetlands have been restored and enhanced on a 315-acre site adjacent to the Scenic Black River in Williamsburg County, South Carolina. These efforts have generated wetland mitigation credits, which are available to the general public to compensate for approved wetland impacts in the coastal plain of South Carolina.      

              The Bank is a private enterprise offering a practical alternative to the expense, time and effort of providing wetland mitigation on your own.  The bank owner bears all the risks and all the costs for the development, construction, maintenance and monitoring of the restored and enhanced wetlands.  The developer or private property owner needs only to purchase the required number of mitigation credits. 




The benefits of time and expense to the bank user are obvious, but as importantly, the Black River Bank confronts the important ecological issues of backwater flooding, habitat diversity, and forest fragmentation providing a lasting ecological legacy with perpetual benefits for future generations.