On Tuesday, April 11, NEBA Board Member Michael Sprague led a meeting with high-ranking officials from the office of Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in Washington, D.C. The 45-minute meeting was extremely productive and included discussions of the importance of high mitigation standards and the need for a level playing field for species bankers and others committing private investment for conservation.
Sprague shared the latest NEBA whitepaper ‘Universal Principles of Compensatory Mitigation’ with the DOI officials, discussing specific challenges for bankers with programs that may not offer real durability or equivalency in their mitigation efforts.
The NEBA Board of Directors has begun work on a new whitepaper in response to suggestions from Interior and intends to hold follow-up meetings with the Department over the next several months.