Imagine that you are a landowner and you could make money off your property without selling any of your land, and help repair an entire ecosystem at the same time. Sounds pretty great and it’s just what the folks at Equinox help landowners do. Equinox works with landowners to participate in restoration efforts on their property and get paid for the land that is used to restore streams and wetlands and placed into a conservation easement. To enhance Equinox’ ability to have a greater impact in the region, we recently joined forces with EW Solutions, Inc. and the premier restoration design firm in the southeast, Wolf Creek Engineering, as part of a team to fix degraded streams and wetlands and help property owners receive real benefits from such efforts. “This is a huge step in Equinox continuing to build upon and enhance our mission of resource conservation and sustainable development” stated David Tuch, Equinox President. It will greatly enhance our ability to add to the more than 4.5 miles of stream we have helped restore since 2000.
This program is a win-win for landowners because they get a newly constructed stream that looks great and they also get paid for doing it. According to Steve Melton Equinox’ Vice President who leads up the landowner searches, “The way it works is simple, the Clean Water Act of 1972 requires that impacts to streams and wetlands during construction be mitigated by restoring a similar stream or wetland within the same impacted watershed”. Basically if a stream gets impacted by construction in one location then a stream needs to be fixed somewhere else. Equinox and their partners work with willing landowners to see if they have a suitable property to restore a stream or wetland due to construction activities taking place within the watershed they live.
To learn more contact Steve Melton at (828) 253-6856.
