Ecological Mitigation and Banking Project Services

Headway Environmental can help develop mitigation banking projects that meet the Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 requirements for US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) districts across the country. Our experts are familiar with the mitigation standard operating procedures, and with the stream and wetland functional assessment tools employed in various districts.

Our Section 404 mitigation banking capabilities include:

• Market and technical feasibility studies
• Site assessment
• Ecological restoration design
• Mitigation and conservation banking instrument development
• Construction oversight
• Adaptive management

Headway Environmental has extensive experience in the development of conservation banks for threatened and endangered species at both the federal and state levels. Our expert staff is certified by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and numerous state agencies.

Our species conservations bank support services include:

• Market and technical feasibility studies
• Habitat assessment
• Restoration design
• Banking enabling agreements
• Construction oversight
• Success monitoring
• Adaptive management
• Species-specific surveys
• Short- and long-term monitoring

Headway Environmental provides comprehensive stream and wetland design services. Our ecological restoration designers and engineers are fully trained to Level IV of Fluvial Morphology and Natural Channel Design and use “Reference Reach” analog/empirical design methodologies to ensure sustainable results that meet mitigation banking project goals.

Our wetland restoration designs follow the principles of the Cowardin Classification System and apply approaches firmly rooted in the sciences of:

• Open-channel hydraulics
• Erosion mechanics
• Sediment transport theory

Headway Environmental provides restoration construction oversight services including direct coordination with contractors, regulators, turnkey mitigation clients, and mitigation bankers to ensure that the project is constructed precisely as designed and permitted.

Headway Environmental provides the environmental monitoring and inspection services typically required to satisfy the success criteria of most banking projects.

Our functional and success criteria monitoring capabilities and areas of expertise include quantitative and qualitative assessments based on:

• Stream cross-sections
• Erosion assessment indices
• Biological sampling
• Stem counts
• Vegetation indices
• Functional assessment and monitoring

Headway Environmental provides adaptive management design services to help you avoid penalties or loss of credit for mitigation banking projects that might otherwise fail to meet their permitted performance criteria.

Adaptive management design tactics may include:

• In-stream structures
• Bank stabilization
• Geotechnical erosion control
• Additional plantings

Headway Environmental ecologists are experts at identifying invasive species in early stages of growth and planning for their control in restored environments and other sensitive areas. We can implement effective invasive species management techniques to ensure your mitigation banking project meets the permitted performance criteria over the long term.