Restoration- Does it Work?

Steve Scher
06/20/2002 at 9:00 a.m.

More than ten years have passed since the United States adopted a no-net-loss policy for wetlands, and attempts to offset wetlands loss with the creation of new ones have not been successful, studies show.

Meanwhile, it has become increasingly common for developers building on wetland sites to pay government agencies, non-profit groups and private businesses to create new wetlands in compensation for those that are destroyed. Do these "in-lieu-fee" and "mitigation banking" schemes hold the promise of an improved track record for the no-net-loss policy?

Guests:
David Lewis, Executive Director, Save San Francisco Bay
David Montgomery, Professor of Geomorphology in Dept of Earth Space Sciences at UW
Ed Hopkins; Director, Environmental Quality Program; Sierra Club
Steve Link, President, Society for Ecological Restoration, NW Chapter
Kurt Beardsley; Washington Trout