Constraints on Mitigation Banking: Oregon's Mitigation Banking Act of 1987

Concerns over wetland mitigation banks have resulted in the adoption of a new state law, the Oregon Wetlands Mitigation Banking Act, Or. Rev. Stat. 541.550-541.595 (1987). Drafted at the request of The Wetlands Conservancy, with technical assistance from the Sierra Club National Coastal Committee and the Oregon Environmental Council, the law establishes a regulatory and management framework for wetland mitigation banks. The Act is designed, according to State Senator Jane Cease, Co-Chair of the Join Legislative Committee on Water Policy, "to define the limits under which those activities could occur."