Mitigation banks enable developers whose projects result in unavoidable impacts to wetlands to buy "credits" in an approved wetland mitigation bank instead of mitigating for impacts on-site. Over the last several years, Peggy Bill, CLC Snohomish County Senior Conservation Director, has worked to promote and advance mitigation banking, a private market based approach for conservation and restoration of critical habitat, especially wetlands.

The Cascade Land Conservancy has been granted a conservation easement on 225 acres of wetlands in Snohomish County, a milestone in the growing program of mitigation banking in Washington State. Habitat Bank, a private mitigation bank, granted the easement on the Snohomish Habitat Bank, situated in the lower Snoqualmie River, just north of King-Snohomish county line. Snohomish Habitat Bank is the first private wetland mitigation bank to be approved in Washington State.  The land is in the river’s floodplain habitat and will be restored to historic wetland conditions, providing habitat for endangered salmon and waterfowl.

"I am very excited about wetland banking," said Jay Manning, Ecology's director. "It holds great promise as a way to improve our ability to protect and restore diverse wetland systems, which are critically important to the environment in which we live. Equally exciting is the fact that wetland banking provides a less costly, faster and more predictable process for people to follow in developing their property."