A mitigation bank is a parcel of land or body of water

A mitigation bank is a parcel of land or body of water on which a banker has conducted mitigation activities such as environmental restoration in anticipation of future impacts from unrelated projects. Mitigation banking is a form of trade wherein aquatic resources such as wetlands and streams are rehabilitated or restored to create credits fit for sale in the form of acres and functions. These credits are then purchased by those causing unavoidable impacts. Activities such as mining, hydraulic fracturing, processing chemicals and even just building homes can impair local rivers, streams and wetlands. Photographed is an unrehabilitated portion of a stream that is being restored at a mitigation bank site in Spanishburg, W.Va.