Rocklin's Wildlands Inc. buys Acer Environmental

Rocklin's Wildlands Inc. buys Acer Environmental
By Mark Glover - mglover@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Wildlands Inc., a Rocklin-based environmental mitigation and banking firm, said Monday it has acquired Acer Environmental Inc., which has offices in the southeastern United States.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

"Acer's talented mitigation banking and ecological restoration team will provide a perfect fit for expanding our services in the Southeast and working toward our nationwide conservation and restoration goals," said Steve Morgan, chairman and chief executive of Wildlands.

Acer, which has offices in Atlanta and Raleigh, N.C., has a staff of 20 whose expertise ranges from custom mitigation bank development and land management to traditional consulting services for wetland and stream restoration, permitting and natural resource management.

Wildlands, a private company that will expand to 89 employees with the Acer acquisition, has been involved in projects throughout the West. The company said it has preserved and protected more than 30,000 acres of habitat.

Founded in 1991, Wildlands invests in land acquisition and uses in-house experts in biology, hydrology, design and construction to restore wetlands and protect endangered species habitats. The company works closely with local, state and federal agencies.

The company creates environmental credits that it sells and trades on the open market to public agencies, private developers and financial institutions to mitigate environmental impacts and enable developers to complete projects in a timely manner.

Wildlands said the environmental mitigation bank it opened in 1994 was the first west of the Mississippi River. The company has offices in Rocklin; Clovis; Charlotte, N.C.; and Marysville, Wash.