Download the CLN brochure here.

Green Infrastructure Resources

Are you a green infrastructure practitioner looking to augment your expertise? Check out our Green Infrastructure Resources page, including links to projects and events, as well as archives of past programs.

Rural Economic Resources

Are you a rural community member looking for tools to support economic development? Check out our Balancing Nature & Commerce Program page, featuring a community of practice, tools, resources and innovative strategies being implemented across the nation. Or download the Balancing Nature and Commerce brochure here. 

Mitigation Resources

Are you a regulator, user, or banker in the field of compensatory mitigation? Check out our Mitigation Resources page for case studies, articles and links.

Water Quality Markets: Resources

From September 15-17, 2015, the USDA and EPA cosponsored the National Workshop on Water Quality Markets. This event was hosted by the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska and coordinated by The Conservation Fund. The Workshop highlighted recent progress in water quality trading across the country with an emphasis on policy, resources, and tool development. The Workshop also provided EPA and USDA with an opportunity to lay out their vision for the role of water quality markets in advancing conservation and water quality goals and to provide participants with the tools to engage in water quality markets. See our compendium of resources associated with this program.

Physical Address:

1098 Turner Road
Shepherdstown, WV 25443-4228
Phone:  (304) 876-2815
Fax:  (304) 870-2208
E-mail: freshwater.info@conservationfund.org

Office Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday

Get Directions

Special Directions For Motor Freight and Parcel Deliveries

Historic Shepherdstown is turn-restricted for trucks and tractor trailers. From Hagerstown, MD: 

• South on Rt. 65 (Sharpsburg Pike, I-70, exit 29) to Sharpsburg
• Right at stop sign onto Rt. 34. Cross Potomac River bridge to Shepherdstown.
• Straight through four-way stop sign on Rt. 480.
• Go one mile and turn right at traffic light onto new bypass.
• Proceed straight through traffic light at Rt. 45, one quarter mile to right onto Billmyer Mill Road.
• Go one mile and turn right on Turner Road.
• Go one mile to The Conservation Fund Freshwater Institute.
• Turn right onto gravel driveway immediately after sign. Continue on driveway past barn to main research building entrance to the right.  Other than USPS all deliveries are directed to the reception office lobby.

We have adequate turn-around space for a tractor trailer, a loading dock and a tractor-mounted fork lift for unloading pallets. If you have a large or unusual load requiring special considerations please contact us in advance to assure appropriate assistance is available on your arrival.

For nearly three decades, the Freshwater Institute has specialized in the research and design of aquaculture systems technology, as well as solutions to the water quality constraints and impacts presented by our farms and communities. Through our numerous publications, both in science and industry, we share our progress and research findings in order to support our complimentary goals of environmental sustainability, human health and economic vitality.

VIEW OUR RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

VIEW OUR INDUSTRY PUBLICATIONS

By the Numbers:

Aquaculture provides over 50% of global seafood production. The U.S. imports over 90% of edible seafood each year. The U.S. is the largest market for Atlantic salmon worldwide yet we import 98% of Atlantic salmon.

The Freshwater Institute, a program of The Conservation Fund, focuses on the sustainability of the domestic seafood supply by providing solutions to enable the growth of environmentally-responsible aquaculture. Presently, demand for seafood can no longer be met by wild catch fisheries, leaving the increased demand to be supplied by aquaculture. Conventional aquaculture production of seafood cannot be significantly expanded without causing negative impacts on the environment. The Institute’s core competencies in aquaculture research, engineering and consulting, aquatic veterinary medicine, aquaculture husbandry and production, industry outreach, and water chemistry analysis are mobilized to address the current sustainability issues in the aquaculture industry.

Watch this video to find out more about the Freshwater Institute and how we are working towards a sustainable, local way to farm healthy fish that’s good for people, our economy and the environment.

There are no events currently scheduled. Please check back in the future.

For information about the Aquaculture Innovation Workshop, click here.

As the United States prioritizes efforts to rehabilitate, enhance and modernize its energy and transportation infrastructure, state and federal regulators play a critical role in making permitting decisions that align with their own priorities to protect important natural resources. Compensatory mitigation may be required because of unavoidable impacts to natural resources and these negotiations can become contentious because it involves additional cost to the permit applicant and could potentially extend project schedules. Ideally, agencies can provide predictable mitigation solutions that are efficient and provide successful outcomes for natural resources; however, sometimes unique projects require unique solutions.

The Conservation Fund provides comprehensive mitigation solutions that support our partners’ approved conservation strategies to offset project-related impacts to natural resources, including turnkey transaction services and management of permittee-responsible mitigation funds for conservation outcomes.

We are an independent non-profit that does not have a membership that can create conflicts of interest for our work on infrastructure mitigation projects. We can implement mitigation via a single real estate transaction or manage and disburse funds for multiple acquisitions, habitat restorations, or critical research needs.

CONTACT THE MITIGATION SOLUTIONS TEAM 

Our teamwork has achieved numerous conservation benefits across the United States, including the protection and restoration of habitats for a variety of species:     

• Mammals: Indiana, northern long-eared, little brown, tricolor, and gray bat species, ocelot, jaguarundi, grizzly bear
• Birds: general migratory birds and specific mitigation for bald and golden eagles, golden-cheeked warbler, red-cockaded woodpecker, red knot, whooping crane, piping plover
• Fish: Atlantic salmon, candy darter
• Invertebrates: American burying beetle, rusty patched bumblebee, Mitchell’s satyr butterfly, Michigan Karner blue butterfly, freshwater mussels
• Reptiles: Eastern massasauga rattlesnake, timber rattlesnake, desert tortoise, gopher tortoise, indigo snake, Louisiana pine snake
• Amphibians: Illinois chorus frog
  
  

^{Credit: Seth Patterson}

WE HAVE ALSO PROVIDED MITIGATION FOR UNIQUE REQUIREMENTS SUCH AS: 

• Land exchanges for replacement of impacted public lands 
• Conservation of land for impacts to viewshed 
• Compensatory mitigation for impacts to cultural and historic sites 
• Creating outdoor recreation spaces for local communities 

Why The Conservation Fund for Mitigation Solutions?

• We deliver cost-effective and timely solutions focusing on the land and water conservation priorities of federal, state and local partners
• We are an Accredited Land Trust, and our work is conducted in accordance with Land Trust Alliance Standards and Practices
• We are top-ranked 4-star rated by the independent Charity Navigator which recognizes our financial health, accountability and transparency
• We have deep expertise in real estate transactions and financing, with experts working throughout the United States
• Our long-standing relationships with the conservation community and agencies responsible for habitat and species
  management mean we are best positioned to deploy compensatory mitigation projects where they will have the most added value
  to broad conservation objectives

^{Credit: Ian Shive}

Our team can provide expertise and proven solutions to the full spectrum of mitigation services once a project has been granted legal and regulatory approval:

Planning

• Conduct full mitigation program management using science-based decision tools and mapping
• Establish and reinforce relationships with mitigation project partners
• Provide strategic project guidance, on-the-ground knowledge, and effective collaboration on mitigation requirements and implementation

Implementation & Fund Administration

• Implement mitigation packages for regulatory compliance or voluntary stewardship
• Create mitigation accounts and manage disbursement of funds based on regulatory and conservation agency priorities

Acquisition

• Manage property and landowner identification and relations, including due diligence, negotiation, and acquisition
• Ensure that all aspects of property acquisition and protection meet mitigation criteria
• Provide interim property management, as well as identification and facilitation of transfer of properties to long-term stewards
• Evaluate project readiness and the capacity and sustainability of conservation partners to manage and permanently protect land

Restoration

• Design project-specific restoration programs to enable properties to meet ecological performance standards
• Identify and engage restoration contractors to implement restoration programs

By the Numbers:

With a nationwide team of real estate and conservation specialists, The Conservation Fund has provided critical mitigation solutions for energy and infrastructure projects, including electric transmission, oil and natural gas, wind, solar, hydropower and transportation.   We have completed more than 350 projects in more than 30 states representing more than 355,000 acres conserved and over $277 million in successfully completed mitigation solutions.

Infrastructure improvements are underway throughout America, and we recognize that balancing economic development with sound environmental practices is essential for America's prosperity. Our mitigation solutions achieve important conservation results by protecting high-priority wildlife habitat, clean water, and recreation areas.

CONTACT THE MITIGATION SOLUTIONS TEAM

We act as a partner, working with project developers, agency partners and conservationists to create plans that mitigate for unavoidable impacts on our natural, historical and cultural resources. We work at the site level, as well as at landscape scale, offering comprehensive, credible and highly efficient services to develop compensatory and voluntary mitigation packages. With keen understanding of business needs, deep legal expertise, extensive knowledge of conservation opportunities, and unmatched agency credibility, we deliver timely solutions to our partners. Ultimately, conservation guides everything we do.

Learn More

• For Project Developers
• For Agency Partners
• Training Opportunity

Our Mitigation Solutions team brings together more than 100 years of pertinent expertise, having served as leaders in government agencies, as national and local conservation practitioners, and as specialized practitioners in land and financial transactions.

We have earned the trust and confidence of federal, state and local agencies nationwide.

We are solutions-oriented.  We don’t shy away from challenging opportunities. Instead, we work in partnership to secure superior conservation outcomes.