Preserving Wetlands: A Win-Win Conservation Strategy

A big-box retailer built on an acre of wetland on the condition that it would mitigate this wetland fill by preserving 20 times that amount of high quality wetland elsewhere within the watershed. Our conservancy entered an agreement to protect the marshy area near Buckhorn Creek in perpetuity upon receiving the EGLE-brokered purchase of this land. That portion of Rose Township was under threat of fragmented development, so the possibility of preserving the area using the fines imposed on the big-box retailer was a great opportunity. Since acquiring the land, the conservancy has completed a species inventory, removed invasive bushes and vines in the upland portion and replanted with native trees and flowers.