For more information on available credits within your service area, please contact us.

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Plants Species

The Following Species Have been protected through the use of Conservation Banks in the U.S.

Resource Center

This can allow landowners can generate substantial income while maintaining ownership of their land.  Developers and others whose activities result in adverse environmental impacts typically are required to compensate for such impacts. Providing compensatory habitat off-site is often the best solution.  However, it can be difficult for individual project proponents to locate appropriate lands and costly to restore, protect, and provide for the long-term management of these lands.  Conservation banks provide a simple, economical alternative for developers and other project proponents.  A one-time purchase of credits saves developers time and money and provides regulatory certainty.

Conservation banking benefits species by establishing large reserves that function as compensatory mitigation areas for multiple projects.  The cost per acre to manage a conservation bank is far less than the equivalent acreage divided among many small isolated mitigation sites.  Larger reserves are also more likely to ensure ecosystem functions, advance biodiversity, and provide opportunities for bridging existing habitat.  In coordination with other preservation efforts, this collective, incentive-based approach to conservation can greatly aid in the recovery of listed species.

Conservation banking also benefits the public by protecting open space and contributing environmental services such as nutrient recycling, pollination services, and climate regulation.  Conservation banking works best in concert with regional conservation planning where the community is involved in determining which areas are conserved and which are developed to achieve a healthy environment and economy.  It is particularly useful when used in conjunction with regional or county-wide Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs).

for these species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) approves a specified number of habitat or species credits that bank owners may sell. Developers or other project proponents who need to compensate for the unavoidable adverse impacts their projects have on species may purchase the credits from conservation bank owners to mitigate their impacts.

Conservation banking offers financial opportunities for a variety of landowners through preservation, enhancement, restoration and/or establishment of habitat for species.  Landowners are often able to maintain their operations, such as ranching, farming, timber, and other agricultural purposes, which can be incorporated into a management plan for the conservation bank.  Degraded habitat, such as retired croplands or orchards, may also be restored.  Linear areas or corridors, such as stretches of streams and their associated riparian habitat that link populations of species, may also qualify as conservation banks.   At Sierra Ridge Consulting our team of biologists and consultants can access the potential of your property to determine if a Conservation Bank is suitable for you needs.

​​A conservation bank can be a highly profitable market enterprise that offers landowners financial incentives to protect species and their habitat. Landowners can profit from selling habitat or species credits to developers who need to compensate for adverse impacts related to their project. 

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What are the benefits of a Conservation Bank?

What is a Conservation Bank?

A Conservation bank is a permanently protected land that contains natural resource values.   They are conserved and permanently managed for species that are either endangered, threatened, candidates for listing, or are otherwise species-at-risk.  The function of the Conservation Bank is to offset the adverse impacts to these species that occurred elsewhere, providing a form of off-site mitigation.  In exchange for permanently protecting the land and managing it

Conservation Banking

Wildlife