BERRIEN COUNTY LIKELY TO FILL WETLAND MITIGATION PERMIT REQUIREMENTS BY PURCHASING CREDITS

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – A concept new to this area that promotes both economic development and environmental preservation is on the horizon in Berrien County. It’s called wetland mitigation banking and allows governmental entities and private developers to move forward with projects that have potential environmental impact.
Wetland mitigation banks aren’t new in other parts of the state. A look at information on the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy shows that wetland mitigation banks have been established in other parts of the state since the late 1990s.
While it’s a practice better known in other parts of the state, the establishment of wetland mitigation banks has come to Berrien County with two wetland mitigation banks in the process of being located on acreage in Baroda and Pipestone Townships.
Pipestone Township Supervisor Doug Davis reported that acreage on Bailey Road is being designated a wetland mitigation bank. The 80-acre parcel was purchased in 2023 by Chad Crandell of Crandell Enterprises in Charlotte, Mich. That company has developed nearly two dozen wetland mitigation bank sites around the state.
Davis said he recently learned about the project and said the township really doesn’t have much say in the matter since the land is zoned for agriculture and the wetland bank is an accepted use.  He said it’s his understanding that any approvals the company has to get will be from the state and from the county drain commissioner.
He said he attended a meeting with Crandell that was also attended by nearby property owners, Pipestone Township Planning Commission Chairman Mike Haskins, Berrien County Drain Commissioner George McManus and Greg Trail from the Berrien County Road Department to learn more about the project.
“We haven’t had a township board meeting about it,” Davis noted. “We may have a public meeting to inform the public but we can’t control it. They only need state and county approvals. We learned how it works and the timeframe for it to be established.”
A project is also underway in Baroda Township. That project is called the Hickory Creek Mitigation Bank and is located on a 36.89 acre property on the south side of West Shawnee Road between Miller and Holden Roads. It is being developed by Niswander Environmental of Brighton, Mich., another wetland bank owner with several sites around the state.
These two wetland banks are within the St. Joseph River Watershed and can sell wetland mitigation credits to developers of projects in that watershed. State wetland mitigation bank programs have been established through both the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and the Michigan Wetland Board of Local Transportation Agencies (MiMB).
Michael Pennington oversees the EGLE Wetland Mitigation Banking Program. He said last week that wetland mitigation banks have been around since 1997 with a significant increase in numbers in the last decade or so in other parts of the state. Wetland mitigation banks are still fairly new to Southwest Michigan, he said.
Pennington estimated that about half of the projects need some sort of local approval. Qualifying properties are primarily farmland that is being restored to wetland and contains soils found in wetland areas. He noted that it’s sometimes difficult to find suitable areas that can be restored to wetland. Existing wetlands generally don’t qualify to be a wetland bank.
Restoration work includes placing habitat structures such as logs on the site and not cutting down trees. The goal is to improve the habitat for birds and other wildlife, keep out invasive species, and have longterm management of the property into perpetuity. The wetland bank developer has to give the state an easement stating that it will never be developed.
He said credits in the wetland banks can be purchased in a number of ways including by private developers and by road departments. In the case of private developers, they can purchase credits from a wetland bank in the same watershed if a development their building destroys a wetland area. He said a private developer could pay up to $100,000 an acre for credits.
Pennington noted that while it can cost $40,000 to $50,000 an acre to establish the wetland, developers can sell credits for as much as $100,000 an acre. He said he expects both the Baroda and Pipestone wetland mitigation banks to be built over the next year and ready to sell credits in the summer of 2026.
He said the response to the wetland mitigation bank concept has been generally positive in other parts of the state. “Most neighbors like the idea of the land never being developed,” he said. “They’ve found that the banks have been better for property values with nothing to degrade them.”
For county road departments, they can claim wetland bank credits from the state to fulfill wetland mitigation requirements if a road project results in the loss of recognized wetlands. The Michigan Wetland Board (MiWB) has $1.6 million available to grant to road departments to buy credits.
Berrien County Community Development Director Dan Fette reported last week that the county will be getting funds to purchase credits for 20 acres of wetland mitigation through the MiWB program. The Berrien County Board of Commissioners formally applied for those credits at their meeting last week.
Fette said when the funds are received from the state, the road department will be able to buy 20 acres of wetland mitigation bank credits to offset wetland impacts from current and future projects. The funds will allow the road department to buy credits from wetland banks in both the St. Joseph River and Paw Paw River watersheds.