MICHIGAN WETLAND BOARD

For decades, the Joint Agency Transportation Committee (JATC) on roads, consisting of the Michigan Departments of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and Transportation; the County Road Association of Michigan (CRA); and Michigan Municipal League, has recognized that local agencies have no program to assist with this costly environmental regulation. A few larger county road agencies can fund their own wetlands, but the vast majority of local agencies could have delayed projects to fund the mitigation or avoid mitigation costs altogether. In 2016, Sen. Mike Green secured legislation and a budget to create a Local Agency Wetland Mitigation Fund (named MiWB), fulfilling the JATC vision. The program is funded at $2 million per year off the top of the Michigan Transportation Fund, and capped at $5 million. Four short years later, MiWB has a seven-member board that has approved bylaws and procedures, hired a wetland manager to run the program and educated road agencies and municipalities..

Primary location: Lansing United States