Conservation Banks in Georgia

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Conservation banks are permanently protected lands that contain natural resources values.

These lands are conservation and permanently managed for species that are endangered, threatened, candidates for listing, or are otherwise species-at-risk. Conservation banking offers opportunities for landowners through preservation, enhancement, resotration and/or establishment of habitat for species. In exchange for permanently protecting the land and managing it for these species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved habitat or species credits that bank owners may sell. Developers and other project proponents who need to compensate for the unavoidable adverse impacts their projects have on species may purchase the credits from bank owners to mitigate their impacts.

Check out the Service's Conservation Banking Library Collection and Mitigation and Conservation Banking Toolbox!

Deerleap Preserve Conservation Bank

Georgia currently has one conservation bank. The Deerleap Preserve Conservation Bank was developed to support recovery and provide a mitigation option for unavoidable impacts to Cherokee darter (Etheostoma scotti), Etowah darter (E. etowahae), and amber darter (Percina antesella). The bank was approved in 2015 and reached the end of interim management period for the bank in 2021. The bank has now moved into the long term management period supported in perpetuity by a non-wasting endowment. For more information, visit Georgia Ecological Services' Mitigation for Species Impacts page.

An Analysis of the Service's Conservation Banking Program

At the request of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), the Department of the Interior's Office of Policy Analysis conducted an analysis of the Service's conservation banking program to identify any institutional or other impediments to creating additional habitat conservation banks and develop potential options for encouraging the expanded use of conservation banking. Go here to learn more and review the initial findings.

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