National Compensatory Mitigation Training Course

Compensatory mitigation is a tool to conserve both aquatic resources (wetlands, streams, and riparian areas) as permitted by the Clean Water Act (404 regulation) and endangered, threatened, and other at-risk species and their habitat as permitted by the Endangered Species Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. Compensatory mitigation requirements can be satisfied through purchase of credits from a mitigation or conservation bank, purchase of credits from an in-lieu fee program, or completion of a permittee-responsible mitigation project.

This 4.5-day training cover key compensatory mitigation topics including federal authorities, regulations and policies regarding compensatory mitigation, the role of Interagency Review Teams (IRT) or Mitigation Review Teams (MRT), the types of compensatory mitigation, and many other important topics. The training will be presented by a suite of compensatory mitigation subject matter experts.

This course is designed to foster collaboration among regulators, compensatory mitigation sponsors and users (buyers of credits) — ensuring that all entities have a thorough grounding in compensatory mitigation policy in order to facilitate the establishment of compensatory mitigation programs on the ground. In addition to addressing core elements of compensatory mitigation instrument establishment and implementation, this advanced course also covers in-lieu fee programs and other credit trading systems and concepts.

Course Objectives

• Provide a thorough grounding in the relevant federal regulations and policies guiding the review, establishment, and operation of compensatory mitigation programs
• Enable participants to identify the need for and opportunities associated with compensatory mitigation programs including economic benefits of third-party compensatory offsets from both a bankers’ and users’ perspective
• Provide practitioners and reviewers expertise on how compensatory mitigation programs are effectively and efficiently reviewed and overseen in both their establishment and operation
• Provide leadership and team building skills necessary to be an effective member of a compensatory mitigation partnership and, for agency staff, to be an effective member of an IRT or MRT

Target Audience

A pre-determined number of slots are available to representatives of partnering agencies including: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), USDA Office of Environmental Markets (OEM), Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM), as well as representatives from state agency counterparts and other mitigation partners (by application, see below). 

Additional Information

Thanks to generous funding from our federal partners there is no cost to attend the course. However, course participants will be responsible for their own lodging and travel costs. The course application process will open in April or May 2025 and information on how to apply will be posted on this web page at that time. For additional questions about the course, please contact Greg Good (ggood@conservationfund.org).