What Happened
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) has revised its Mitigation Policy and Endangered Species Act Compensatory Mitigation Policy. These two policies influence how the USFWS will consider and address mitigation goals and standards. The revised policies adopt Obama-era policies that were enacted in 2016 and later repealed in 2017, with some modifications based on previous legal challenges. Project proponents and species conservation bank sponsors seeking to use or create mitigation will have new standards and obligations under these revised policies. The USFWS will apply these revised policies to determine what types of actions qualify as mitigation.
In practice, the new policies will make the species mitigation process similar to the Compensatory Mitigation for Losses of Aquatic Resources (33 Code of Federal Regulations Parts 325 and 332, and 40 Code of Federal Regulations Part 230) (73 Federal Register 19594, April 10, 2008).
Read more in the full Regulatory Alert.
SWCA Lens
Reach out to your project manager or one of SWCA’s regulatory specialists for more information, insights, and strategies to keep your projects on track.
