摘要：Government agencies that develop infrastructure such as roads, waterworks, and energydelivery often impact natural ecosystems, but they also have unique opportunities to contribute to theconservation of regional natural resources through compensatory mitigation. Infrastructure developmentrequires a planning, funding, and implementation cycle that can frequently take a decade or longer, butbiological mitigation is often planned and implemented late in this process, in a project-by-project piecemealmanner. By adopting early regional mitigation needs assessment and planning for habitat-level impactsfrom multiple infrastructure projects, agencies could secure time needed to proactively integrate theseobligations into regional conservation objectives. Such practice can be financially and ecologicallybeneficial due to economies of scale, and because earlier mitigation implementation means potentiallydevelopable critical parcels may still be available for conservation. Here, we compare the integration ofregional conservation designs, termed greenprints, with early multi-project mitigation assessment for twoareas in California, USA. The expected spatial extent of habitat impacts and associated mitigationrequirements from multiple projects were identified for each area. We used the reserve-selection algorithmMARXAN to identify a regional greenprint for each site and to seek mitigation solutions through parcelacquisition that would contribute to the greenprint, as well as meet agency obligations. The two areasdiffered in the amount of input data available, the types of conservation objectives identified, and localland-management capacity. They are representative of the range of conditions that conservationpractitioners may encounter, so contrasting the two illustrates how regional advanced mitigation can begeneralized for use in a wide variety of settings. Environmental organizations can benefit from this approachbecause it provides a platform for collaboration with infrastructure agencies. Alone, infrastructure agencymitigation obligations will not satisfy all greenprint objectives, but they can be a major contributor to theongoing process of implementing ecologically sustainable regional plans
