not avoid certain impacts to regulated waters or wetlands might be required to compensate through approved projects. An independently reviewed mitigation bank could restore or protect a suitable site and, after meeting specified performance standards, release credits for sale in the relevant service area. The process required more than being wet and more than having birds visit in spring.
"A buyer can't simply pay you for the fact that water is standing in your beans," Odell said. "The regulators need to know what ecological function will be gained, how it will be maintained, what the baseline condition is, and whether that gain is genuinely additional to what the law already requires."
Warren frowned. "Put that in a language a farmer uses."
Odell considered the request. "If you're already required to fix a problem, you usually can't turn the repair into a windfall by selling it as a new benefit. If you restore something beyond that obligation and prove it lasts, there may be value someone is allowed to purchase."
Warren looked toward the low field, where sunlight now shone on a strip of open water. "So if the developer flooded me illegally, I don't get paid for being flooded."
"Correct," Odell said. "And we need to distinguish the harm from any restoration project you might choose to undertake. The damage claim and a future credit project are separate matters, even if they concern the same land."
Casey appreciated that Odell was willing to make the distinction in front of Warren. A lesser consultant, eager to secure a client, might have offered big projected credit prices and said little about the obstacles. Odell instead laid out surveys, hydrologic modeling, soil classification, regulatory review, a permanent land protection agreement, long-term stewardship costs, monitoring, and the possibility that approval might never come. He added that market demand and credit prices could change during the years needed to complete a project.
"Sounds like planting a crop," Warren said after a moment. "Except you don't know when the planting date is, you can't harvest until somebody signs a paper, and the crop might never exist."
Odell smiled. "There are similarities. But I wouldn't recommend you finance your next loan payment with something this uncertain."
"Then why are you here?" Warren asked.
"Because uncertainty doesn't mean no opportunity. It means we have to find the truth before we take the risk."
Warren folded his arms and watched the older man for a long time. Odell had not attempted to flatter him, had not dismissed the crop loss, and had not offered the salvation that every bank letter seemed to demand. Warren decided he could tolerate a man who admitted that he did not yet know what the land was worth. He agreed to a limited preliminary assessment and insisted that all future work be authorized in writing.