Our Mission

The Michigan Municipal Wetland Alliance (MMWA) encourages long-term sustainability in water quality and biodiverse ecosystems by preserving and restoring wetland habitat on Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ (MDNR) public lands to address wetland impacts from Michigan municipalities, agricultural producers, and blueberry growers.

The MMWA is a non-profit organization engaging in a public-private partnership with MDNR to help Michigan municipalities, agricultural producers, and blueberry growers abide by stringent wetland mitigation requirements. The MMWA is dedicated to preserving wetland habitat and enhancing outdoor recreation on MDNR public lands, while simultaneously addressing wetland impacts from Michigan municipalities, agricultural producers, and blueberry growers.

The MMWA is made possible by a coordination of effort between the following member groups:

Collaborators assisting in the advancement of the program include:

Special thanks to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and the Michigan Legislature for seeing the value in this endeavor and recognizing that wetlands are vital to our wildlife and infrastructure.

The MMWA was created to offer wetland mitigation bank credit opportunities to address unavoidable wetland impacts from Michigan municipalities, agricultural producers, and blueberry growers. As a non-profit organization, the MMWA is able to utilize grant funds from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to create high-functioning, professionally managed and maintained wetland mitigation banks, encouraging long-term sustainability, high water quality, and biodiverse ecosystems.

Mitigation construction on a per project basis can be very complicated, expensive, and time consuming, and public infrastructure projects can be delayed or put on hold due to costly mitigation requirements. While on-site mitigation may be an option for your particular project, the preferred method of mitigation under federal and state statutes is mitigation banking, which reduces permit processing time and costs, increases certainty regarding the availability of adequate mitigation sites, consolidates small mitigation projects into better designed units, and encourages integration of wetland mitigation projects with watershed-based resource planning.

The public-private partnership between the MMWA and the MDNR helps to make compliance with strict wetland mitigation requirements less complicated, less expensive, and less time consuming. Restoring wetlands on MDNR public lands creates wetland habitat and enhances recreational opportunities, while building large, professionally managed and maintained wetland areas supports a more biodiverse ecosystem with a more successful track record of long-term sustainability. With the MDNR’s assistance, the MMWA is able to offer a very reasonable price point for municipalities, agricultural producers, and blueberry growers who need to buy wetland mitigation bank credits.