Ed Haag flushes two ducks as he makes his way toward a small pond on his Loon Lake property.


The ducks are mallards; theyre always hanging around, he says.


Moving on, Haag spots a kestrel, then a sandpiper. He points to hoof impressions in mud on the ponds banks as proof that theres no shortage of deer.


Before we did this, you could walk through the entire field, and youd be lucky to scare up one robin, he says.


Haag has restored wetlands on an 8 1/2-acre plot of land just west of Loon Lake. The land had been trenched in the 1920s and converted into farmland. Over the past three years, though, Haag has returned it to its original state.


He says he bought the land in 1997 with restoration in mind as an environmentally conscientious endeavor. While his convictions on that remain firm, the project has become a business opportunity for the 58-year-old Spokane freelance writer. He is starting a for-profit venture through which he plans to sell credits in the restored wetlands through a process called wetland banking.


As called for in the federal Clean Water Act, the Washington state Department of Ecology follows a no-net-loss policy regarding wetlands, meaning that a developer cant drain, fill, and build on a wetland without finding a way to replace it.


Chris Merker, a Spokane-based wetland biologist with Ecology, says the state agency has started a wetland banking pilot program through which a developer who displaces a wetland can buy rights to count a restored wetland under the law as a replacement for that lost habitat. Participating developers dont buy the land itself, just what are referred to as wetland credits.


Thus far, Ecology has allowed seven so-called wetland banks to participate in the pilot program, and Haags property is among those that have received preliminary approval to operate as a wetland bank. Haag is waiting for Ecology to certify his property as a wetland bank, something he expects to occur within a month.


The hope, Merker says, is that the pilot effort will evolve into a permanent wetland banking program for the state and will provide an incentive for restoration of more land that originally was wetlands. That could be contingent on whether funding is available to administer the program, though.


He says Ecology started a wetland banking program earlier this decade, and at least one wetland bank in Western Washington began selling credits. The Washington Legislature, however, cut funding for the program two years ago when the state faced large budget shortfalls.


During the most recent biennium, representatives of Ecology and some developers lobbied in Olympia together to bring back the program.


The unusual pairing of Ecology and business interests is proof that wetland banking is a wanted alternative to current methods of replacing eliminated wetlands, Merker says.


Currently, developers often will replace wetlands through on-site mitigation, which involves creating wetlands on part of the same development site where they have been eliminated. With that practice, a developer has to monitor the new wetlands for at least 10 years, which can be costly, especially if the wetlands fail and must be rebuilt, Merker says.


With wetland banking, he says, It gives the developer that has to mitigate another option. He can pay somebody, and he doesnt have to think about it again. Thats a benefit for developers who just want to develop.


Haag says Ecology also would benefit from the use of wetland banking, because it eventually would be able to spend fewer staff hours making sure that developers are doing what they are supposed to with their mitigated properties.


More importantly to ecology proponents, Haag asserts that on-site wetland-relocation efforts rarely will truly replace the small ecosystems that have been eliminated. He contends most replacement sites are nothing more than a place where cattails grow and mosquitoes proliferate.


They spend all this money so that mosquitoes can spawn and bite people, he says.


Ecology spokeswoman Sheryl Hutchison says all of the business interests the agency has worked with on wetland banking are located in Western Washington. Also, all of the banks except Haags are located there.


After his land is certified as a wetland bank, Haag hopes to begin selling credits to private developers, the Washington state Department of Transportation, and any other participant in developments that involve eliminating wetlands.


As currently planned, Haags rates would start at $3,500 for a percentage of a credit equal to up to 500 square feet of wetlands. The one-time charges would range up to $15,000 for 10,000 square feet of wetlands. Rates for any greater amount of wetland credit would be negotiable.


At the stated rates, Haag would bring in anywhere from about $60,000 to about $300,000 an acre by selling wetland credits. He says he has a total of about $500,000 invested in the property, which in addition to the 8 1/2 acres of wetlands also includes 12 acres of vacant land and an early 1900s home.


A wetland credit generally is equal to an acre of land, but Merker says developers typically would have to buy credits for more wetlands than they are displacing. Ecology has developed a formula that takes into account the type of wetland and its value in the environment to determine how many credits a developer must buy.


For example, a developer who eliminates a rare or difficult to replace wetland, such as a cottonwood forest wetland near a river, might have to buy as many as three wetland credits for every acre of land they displace.


Much development activity near wetlands involves altering less than an acre of such land, however, so Haag expects to sell partial credits in many instances.


Haag owns his planned wetlands bank separate from the real estate. Because he has restored the wetlands, he can sell the property but still have rights to the wetlands credits, he says. The land will be protected through a conservation easement that will prohibit any future property owners from altering the wetlands.


Currently, he is seeking to sell the property, the 12 acres of additional land, and the early 1990s home on the property. He initially had considered converting the home into an events facility, but decided against pursuing that venture. The entire property is being marketed for sale for $349,000.


In late 2001, Haag started converting the farmland back to wetlands with a massive excavation through which a layer of soiland much intrusive canary grass that had grown up therewas removed from the site. Also, crews plugged much of an old man-made ditch on the site and dug a couple of pond-like impressions, one that went seven feet down at its deepest.


A number of bushes and trees found in and conducive to wetlandswillows, Douglass spireas, and snowberry bushes, to name a fewwere planted on the site.


The next spring, Haag says, the impression gathered and held water, and the land quickly attracted various types of waterfowl. Surprisingly, he says, some wetland plants that he hadnt planted began to sprout up that spring.


We dont know where they came from, he says, adding that he wondered whether it was possible that the plants had remained in the soils seed bank from 80 years ago.


Encouraged by the results, Haag had the rest of the site excavated and dug a handful of additional pond-like impressions that were between 2 1/2 and five feet deep.


Only the deepest of the ponds has water in it year-round, but the various-sized water holes attract different wildlife species.


Since completing the wetland restoration, Haag says he seen between 30 and 40 different species of birds on the site, in addition to frogs, muskrats, and deer, among other wildlife.


Merker says it isnt uncommon for wetlands to come back quickly when re-created on an original site.


When the hydrology is restored, the plants and wildlife will follow, he says.